Trump allies poised to control TikTok
The move follows a decision by the Biden administration to force its Chinese owner ByteDance to sell its US operations. [Getty]
Billionaire Trump allies are set to take control of TikTok after months of negotiations with China, The New Arab Staff and Agencies have reported.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on September 25th that proposed Chinese ownership of TikTok be reduced to 20% for the app’s US version.
The executive order stated that “the proposed divestiture would allow the millions of Americans who enjoy TikTok every day to continue using it while also protecting national security.”
At a signing ceremony at the White House, Trump told reporters, “If I could make it 100 per cent MAGA, I would, but it’s not going to work out that way, unfortunately. No… every group, every philosophy, every policy, will be treated very fairly,”
Figures set to run TikTok include Oracle founder Larry Ellison, tech investor Michael Dell, and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
Larry Ellison was estimated to have a net worth of $135 billion in 2024, while Rupert Murdoch is the owner of Talk TV, which received backlash after a Palestinian MP was repeatedly interrupted by host Julie Hartley-Brewer on January 3rd, 2024.
The US version of TikTok would feature a homegrown model of the app’s algorithm that helped it grow to be one of the world’s most popular platforms.
A White House official confirmed on September 22nd that the algorithm would be “continuously monitored” to prevent it from being “unduly influenced.”
On July 16th, Bahrain’s Crown Prince declared plans to invest $17 billion in the US, along with signing deals with US companies like Oracle and Cisco, with the aim of replacing Chinese servers with products of Cisco.
The proposed new TikTok set-up is in response to legislation passed by President Joe Biden, Trump’s predecessor; the ban was due to concerns that the Chinese government was using the app to gather data on US citizens.
This law forced the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell its US operations or face being banned in its largest market.
The US Supreme Court gave ByteDance until January 19th to sell its platform, or face a US ban that would impact its estimated 170 million users in the US.
TikTok had challenged the law on the grounds that it would violate the free speech protections for its US-based users; however, this was unanimously rejected by the Supreme Court.
This meant that TikTok was forced to find a government-approved buyer for the app’s US version; if a buyer could not be found, TikTok would be removed from all US app stores and web hosting services.
Initially, TikTok stopped working for US users on January 18th, one day before the ban would come into effect, due to concerns of national security.
However, President Trump vowed to restore access to the app when he was inaugurated as president on January 20th.
The New Arab Staff and Agencies, Maghrebi.org
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