President Trump, who led the charge to ban TikTok from the US years ago, seemed to claim credit for saving it, something he said should delight young voters.
Trump and negotiators suggested on Monday that the short-video platform, owned by Chinese company Bytedance, would avoid the ban.
It’s a significant turn of events that could end a year-long saga surrounding the fate of the popular social network, which has become one of the most sought-after tech assets even as it has been used as a geopolitical pawn, reflecting the volatility of relations between China and the United States and the U.S.
Trump suggested on Monday that U.S. and Chinese officials reached an agreement before a Wednesday deadline to hand over TikTok to a non-Chinese owner due to national security concerns.
“A deal was also made for a ‘certain’ company that the young people of our country really wanted to save. They will be very happy!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform.
Trump said he would speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday.
Trump’s post came on the same day Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen told reporters that a “framework” for a TikTok deal was in place and was expected to be finalized Friday. U.S. and Chinese officials held trade talks in Spain.
The U.S. Treasury Department and TikTok did not respond to questions about the deal.
Li Chenggang, China’s international trade representative and commerce minister, said U.S. and Chinese officials have had “candid, in-depth and constructive communication” on trade issues and TikTok, Xinhua reported, China’s state media agency.
China opposes the “politicization, instrumentalization and weaponization of technology and economic trade issues,” the report said.
TikTok, used by more than 170 million Americans, has faced threats of a US ban for years, with both Democrats and Republicans expressing concerns that the Chinese government could be forced to hand over data from US users.
TikTok says on its website that the Chinese government never asked to share US data and never would, noting that it stores US information in Oracle Cloud and that its infrastructure is controlled by a data security unit that TikTok created.
Details of how the deal would work remain murky. Oracle, a technology company founded in California but which moved its headquarters to Texas, saw its share price rise more than 2% on Monday on speculation that it could be involved in the deal.
TikTok, a platform where people post silly dances, music videos, challenges and more, is popular with young people. Americans turn to the app to consume news, discover music and find other forms of entertainment. And politicians, including in California, are using TikTok to reach young voters. The app features a personalized video feed that shows users content they are likely to be interested in.
Tiktok’s origins date back to 2016, when Bytedance launched a short-form video platform called Douyin in China before launching an international version called Tiktok. Bytedance then acquired Musical.ly, a lip-syncing platform based in Shanghai with an office in Santa Monica, and merged it with Tiktok.
Tiktok aggressively marketed the app in the US and worked with creators to fill the app with engaging content that could keep people scrolling for hours.
It’s a popularity that has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, as people turned to social media to find more ways to entertain themselves while stuck at home. In response to the rise of TikTok, social media platforms popular among young people, such as Instagram and YouTube, have rolled out new ways for people to share and edit short videos.
As Tiktok grows, concerns about censorship, mental health harm, data privacy, and national security arise.
During Trump’s first term in 2020, he issued an executive order requiring Bytedance to establish TikTok’s US operations after criticizing China for its handling of the coronavirus. TikTok sued the Trump administration, and a federal judge blocked the executive order.
During the Biden administration, the president rescinded Trump’s executive order but still issued one that called for a review of foreign-controlled apps that could pose a national security risk to Americans.
Bipartisan scrutiny of the app continued, prompting lawmakers to grill TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in a lengthy court hearing in 2023.
President Biden signed bipartisan legislation into law in 2024 that would require Bytedance to sell TikTok by a set deadline or the app would be banned in the U.S. The legal battle went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the TikTok ban this year.
In January, TikTok shut down its app in the US for less than a day, angering its users and forcing it to remain under political pressure from the Trump administration. Trump delayed enforcement of the law, and the deadline has been pushed back several times, giving TikTok and Bytedance time to find a potential US buyer.
As Trump imposed tariffs on countries including China, which also threatened to derail a potential deal with TikTok as the two countries negotiated trade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
