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Donald Trump says he has given his “blessing” to a proposed deal that could prevent TikTok from being banned in the United States.
He told reporters at the White House that he backs a deal with Oracle and Walmart that would create a new company to oversee TikTok’s operations in the United States.
Trump said the new company would be “fully controlled by Oracle and Walmart.”
People in the US ready to be banned downloading the video-sharing app, as well as another Chinese app, WeChat, on Sunday, following concerns from the White House over user data security.
Donald Trump said he approved the deal ‘in concept’
An earlier statement from the US Department of Commerce said: “The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has demonstrated the means and motives to use these apps to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”
He added that the apps pose “unacceptable risks” to national security.
But the president has now said that he approves the agreement “in concept” and that the security will be “100%”, adding: “I have given my blessing to the agreement.”
The Reuters news agency reported Thursday that the new company, called TikTok Global, will have a majority of US directors, a US CEO and a security expert on board.
It is expected to create at least 25,000 new jobs and will be based in Texas, the president said.
Oracle and Walmart are expected to take significant equity stakes and ByteDance, which owns TikTok, has agreed on significant security safeguards, and Oracle hosts all data and has the right to inspect the application’s source code.
However, China has yet to approve the deal.
TikTok said in a statement: “We are pleased that the proposal by TikTok, Oracle and Walmart will resolve the security concerns of the US Administration and resolve doubts about the future of TikTok in the United States.”
He added: “Our team works tirelessly to provide a safe and inclusive platform and we are delighted that we can continue to serve our incredibly diverse and creative community.”
Trump said: “We will see if everything happens or not.”
It’s not immediately clear if the commerce department will backtrack on its plans to force Google and Apple to stop offering TikTok in their US app stores on Sunday.
