TikTok seals agreement with White House, will it continue its US operations?
TikTok has reached an agreement with the White House to continue its US operations. However, it is still unclear who will be responsible for the company's US operations.
President Donald Trump thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for allowing the TikTok deal.
Under the agreement, a new US entity will be created that will be separate from TikTok's global operations. These operations are currently run from China.
Under this arrangement, TikTok's algorithm will operate solely on the basis of American user data, and this data will be protected according to US regulations.
This means that the experience of American users on TikTok may change.
During the term of former US President Joe Biden, orders were issued to ban TikTok.
TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, was given until January 2025 to separate its US operations. But President Donald Trump repeatedly delayed the decision to implement the ban.
In this case, lawmakers were concerned that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over American user data.
Trump praised the deal in a social media post saying TikTok "will now be owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors, the Biggest in the World."
He thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping "for working with us and, ultimately, approving the Deal. He could have gone the other way, but didn’t, and is appreciated for his decision."