Daily London
TikTok has finalised the deal that will prevent it from being banned in the US just one day before the deadline set by President Donald Trump.
Trump vowed to ban the popular video app during his first term in office, a promise which former president Joe Biden made good on.
In 2024 he signed a law that gave TikTok two choices; remove the US version of the app out from under Chinese parent company ByteDance, or it would be banned nationwide.
TikTok’s more than 200 million American users got a taste of what the ban would look like early last year, when the app briefly went dark in the US.
That is, until Trump kicked off his second term by bringing the app back.
He has since repeatedly delayed the enforcement of Biden’s law and in doing so, given TikTok ample time to secure an American buyer to take over its US assets.
The last extension he gave had a deadline of January 23, 2026 – and the deal came in just under the wire today.
A majority American-owned joint venture has been established to take over TikTok’s US assets and create a new US version of the app.
”The majority American-owned joint venture will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for US users,” the group said, via CNN.
The group’s leadership team will include chief executive Adam Presser and chief security officer Will Farrell, both of whom have worked with TikTok before.
It will also be overseen by a board including TikTok US chief executive Shou Chew and a number of representatives from investment firms in the US and abroad.
Major investors include Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX.
TikTok signed the deal handing over its US user data and most of its US operations last month.
He has yet to comment on the deal’s finalisation.
