The US and China have signed a deal that gives control of TikTok’s US operation to a majority American-owned joint venture comprised of investors backed by Trump.
TikTok announced the deal on Thursday, just one day before the deadline set by Trump for the app’s US assets to be sold off by its Chinese parent company ByteDance.
‘The majority American owned Joint Venture will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for U.S. users,’ the announcement stated.
The joint venture, called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, came in response to a law passed by former President Joe Biden.
The law threatened to ban TikTok in the US if ByteDance did not sell TikTok’s operations in the country, which is the app’s biggest market.
Silver Lake, Oracle and United Arab Emirates investment firm MGX each hold a 15 percent stake in the joint venture.
Oracle’s co-founder and executive chair, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally. The president said last year that Ellison should purchase TikTok.
Other investors include Dell Family Office, affiliates of Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, and several other investment firms.
The US and China have signed a deal that gives control of TikTok’s US operation to a majority American-owned joint venture comprised of investors backed by Trump
Oracle holds a 15 percent stake in the joint venture. The company’s co-founder and executive chair, Larry Ellison (pictured), is a longtime Trump ally
ByteDance retains a 19.9 percent stake, which is just below the 20 percent threshold stipulated in the law passed by Biden.
The joint venture will have authority over trust and safety policies, as well as content moderation for US users. It also plans to retrain TikTok’s algorithm on US user data, which will be stored and overseen by Oracle’s cloud computing operation.
American users’ data will be subject to data privacy and security review by third-party cybersecurity experts.
TikTok’s global entities, which are still owned by ByteDance, will continue to manage international product integration and commercial activities, including e-commerce and advertising.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will be governed by a seven-member, majority-American board including TikTok CEO Shou Chew and executives from major investment firms.
TikTok executive Adam Presser, who previously led the company’s efforts to secure Americans’ user data in the US, was appointed CEO of the new entity.
Will Farrell, who led privacy and security under Presser’s efforts, was appointed as chief security officer.
The requirement to create the joint venture came after bipartisan fears that China could use TikTok to mine Americans’ data or exert influence through its algorithm.
The creation of the new joint venture came as a result of bipartisan fears that China could use TikTok to mine Americans’ data or exert influence through its algorithm
TikTok executive Adam Presser (pictured), who previously led the company’s efforts to secure Americans’ user data in the US, was appointed CEO of the new joint venture
Both Trump and Biden warned of national security concerns and pushed for a nationwide ban at different points.
Such a ban almost took effect about a year ago, when the original deadline for Biden’s bill – which was upheld by the Supreme Court – came to pass.
But Trump, crediting the app for his appeal with young voters, delayed enforcement four times through successive executive orders, most recently extending the deadline to January 22.
Trump said in September that a new venture had been agreed with China and would meet the law’s requirements.
At the time, he had already mentioned that Ellison would play a major role in the arrangement.
Ellison has returned to the spotlight through his dealings with Trump, who has brought his old friend into major AI partnerships with OpenAI.
Ellison has also financed his son David’s recent takeover of Paramount and bidding war with Netflix for Warner Bros.
