Miami (AFP) – TikTok on Friday was hours from a deadline to find a non-Chinese owner or face a ban in the United States. The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has more than 170 million American users, is under threat from a US law that passed overwhelmingly last year. This law orders TikTok to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance or get shut down in the United States. US President Donald Trump on Thursday said his administration was “very close” to a deal to find a buyer for TikTok, adding that it involved “multiple” investors but giving no further details.
Motivated by national security fears and widespread belief in Washington that TikTok is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government, the law took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration. In the hours before that deadline, TikTok temporarily shut down in the United States and disappeared from app stores, to the dismay of millions of users. However, the Republican president quickly announced a 75-day delay and TikTok subsequently restored service to existing users, returning to the Apple and Google app stores in February.
That delay is set to expire at midnight (0400 GMT) on April 5, but Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business. The president also suggested TikTok could even be part of a broader deal with China to ease the stinging tariffs he imposed on Beijing as part of a worldwide blitz of levies. Asked Thursday if he was willing to make deals with countries on tariffs, he said: “As long as they are giving us something that is good. For instance with TikTok.”
“We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say we’ll approve a deal but will you do something on the tariffs. The tariffs give us great power to negotiate,” he added. According to reports, the most likely solution would see existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company. Additional US investors, including Oracle and Blackstone, the private equity firm, would be brought on to reduce the proportion of Chinese investors. Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally.
But uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok’s valuable algorithm. The New York Times suggested the new company could license it from ByteDance. This arrangement would, however, go against the spirit of the law, which is in part based on the premise that TikTok’s algorithm can be weaponized by the Chinese against US interests. Amazon has also reportedly made a last-minute bid to buy TikTok. Other proposals include an initiative called “The People’s Bid for TikTok,” launched by real estate and sports tycoon Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative.
Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity recently expressed interest in buying TikTok, as did a joint venture involving YouTube mega-celebrity MrBeast. Trump, though he supported a ban in his first term, has lately become a TikTok defender, seeing it as a reason more young voters supported him in November’s election. One of his major political donors, billionaire Jeff Yass, is a major stakeholder in parent company ByteDance.
© 2024 AFP
