White House says deal to put TikTok under US ownership could be finalized in South Korea

The Trump administration has been signaling that it might have lastly reached a take care of China to maintain TikTok working within the U.S., with the 2 nations finalizing it as quickly as Thursday.

President Donald Trump is visiting South Korea, the place he’ll meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to attempt to de-escalate a commerce warfare.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent informed CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday that the 2 leaders will “consummate that transaction on Thursday in Korea.”

If it occurs, the deal would mark the tip of months of uncertainty concerning the destiny of the favored video-sharing platform in america. After huge bipartisan majorities in Congress handed — and President Joe Biden signed — a legislation that may ban TikTok in the U.S. if it didn’t discover a new proprietor within the place of China’s ByteDance, the platform was set to go darkish on the legislation’s January deadline. For a a number of hours, it did. However on his first day in workplace, Trump signed an executive order to keep it running whereas his administration tries to succeed in an settlement for the sale of the corporate.

Three extra government orders adopted, as Trump, with out a clear authorized foundation, continued to increase the deadline for a TikTok deal. The second was in April, when White Home officers believed they had been nearing a deal to spin off TikTok into a brand new firm with U.S. possession that fell aside after China backed out following Trump’s tariff announcement. The third got here in June, then one other in September, which Trump mentioned would enable TikTok to proceed working in america in a means that meets nationwide safety considerations.

Trump’s order was meant to allow an American-led group of traders to purchase the app from China’s ByteDance, although the deal additionally requires China’s approval.

Nonetheless, TikTok deal is “not likely an enormous factor for Xi Jinping,” mentioned Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program, throughout a media briefing Tuesday. “(China is) completely satisfied to let (Trump) declare that they’ve lastly stored a deal. Whether or not or not that deal will defend the info of Individuals is an enormous query going ahead.”

“A giant query mark for america, in fact, is whether or not that is in step with U.S. legislation since there was a legislation handed by Congress,” Glaser mentioned.

About 43% of U.S. adults beneath the age of 30 say they repeatedly get information from TikTok, greater than some other social media app, together with YouTube, Fb and Instagram, in accordance with a Pew Analysis Heart report published in September.

Individuals are additionally extra carefully divided on what to do about TikTok than they had been two years in the past.

A current Pew Research Center survey discovered that about one-third of Individuals mentioned they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third mentioned they’d oppose a ban, and the same share mentioned they weren’t certain.

Amongst those that mentioned they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited considerations over customers’ information safety being in danger as a significant factor of their determination, in accordance with the report.

The TikTok suggestion algorithm — which has steered tens of millions of customers into an infinite stream of video shorts — has been central within the safety debate over the platform. China beforehand said the algorithm should stay beneath Chinese language management by legislation. However a U.S. regulation that Congress handed with bipartisan help mentioned any divestment of TikTok should imply the platform lower ties with ByteDance.

American officers have warned the algorithm — a fancy system of guidelines and calculations that platforms use to ship customized content material to your feed — is susceptible to manipulation by Chinese language authorities, however no proof has been offered by U.S. officers proving that China has tried to take action.

—

Related Press Author Fu Ting contributed to this story from Washington.