President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order that he says clears the way for TikTok to keep running in the United States under American control. The move comes after months of uncertainty over the app’s future and growing concerns about data security.
The order allows a U.S.-led investor group to acquire TikTok from China’s ByteDance, though the transaction still awaits China’s approval and final details remain unsettled, AP reported. Trump said during a White House ceremony that Chinese President Xi Jinping has agreed to the arrangement.
Vice President JD Vance explained the objective of the deal: “There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law.” The Chinese embassy in Washington has yet to confirm the claim.
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The agreement follows legislation signed last year by President Joe Biden, which mandated TikTok’s U.S. assets be sold or face a nationwide ban. Trump has since issued several extensions to allow talks to proceed. This latest order gives negotiators an additional 120 days to close the deal and affirms that the proposed structure satisfies the national security requirements of that law.
Young Americans, Trump said, “really wanted this to happen.” The platform’s reach highlights why: according to new data from Pew Research Center, 43% of adults under 30 in the U.S. now get their news from TikTok, more than from YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook.
Under the terms shared by the White House, TikTok will be spun into a new joint venture controlled by American investors. Tech giant Oracle and private equity firm Silver Lake are among the lead partners. U.S. investors would hold about 80% of the ownership, while ByteDance would keep less than 20%, a minority stake reserved for foreign shareholders. Although ByteDance would retain one board seat, it would not participate in security matters.
Among the prominent figures involved are Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and Dell founder Michael Dell, raising questions about how political or business ties could shape the platform. Civil liberties advocates such as David Greene of the Electronic Frontier Foundation have warned that TikTok users may “get the editorial policies of the people who now have control of the company,” and how criticism of Trump or his allies is handled will be closely watched.
Central to the debate is TikTok’s algorithm, the recommendation system that drives its endless feed of videos. U.S. officials have long argued it could be exploited by Chinese authorities, though no evidence has been provided. The order stipulates that a retrained copy of the algorithm, built entirely on U.S. data, will power the American version of the app, with content moderation and oversight managed domestically.
How those changes will affect TikTok’s culture remains unclear. “Social media is just as much about the culture as it is the technology, and how users will take to new ownership and potentially a new version of the app is still an open question,” said Jasmine Enberg, an analyst at eMarketer.
China once dismissed the forced divestment as “robbery,” but officials in the country have softened their position amid broader U.S.-China trade talks. Analysts argue the app itself is less strategically important than access to advanced U.S. technologies. “TikTok, by contrast, is a maturing consumer app with diminishing strategic weight,” said Dimitar Gueorguiev, a political science professor at Syracuse University.
For now, the app continues to operate in the U.S., but its future lies in whether the proposed joint venture can be finalized, and whether its millions of users will embrace it under new ownership.
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