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A US judge in Washington temporarily blocked an order from the Trump administration banning TikTok hours before it took effect.
District Judge Carl Nichols granted a preliminary injunction requested by TikTok owner ByteDance to allow the app to remain available in US app stores, ahead of the 11:59 Sunday deadline. p.m
However, it refused ‘at this time’ to block additional Commerce Department restrictions set to take effect on November 12, which the Beijing-based company has said would have the impact of making the app unusable. in the U.S.
Donald Trump has been pushing for months for TikTok to become US property and ordered that TikTok be blocked at midnight Sunday unless a buyer is found.
Donald Trump, pictured on Sunday, ordered a ban on TikTok downloads starting at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
Trump’s ban was blocked at the last minute by a judge in Washington DC
Judge Carl J. Nichols’ ruling was issued hours before the ban was implemented.
Last week he said he had given his blessing for a deal between TikTok and a coalition of Oracle and Walmart, but the deal still needs approval from the Chinese government, which means the deadline remains in effect.
The deal will see TikTok become a Texas-based startup, which could create 25,000 jobs, Trump said.
Oracle will take a 12.5 percent stake in the new company, TikTok Global, while Walmart will take 7.5%. Chinese firm ByteDance will retain about 80% of the new company, according to the Wall Street Journal.
But because ByteDance is 40% owned by US investors, the new TikTok Global will technically have US majority ownership.
Any agreement would still have to be signed by Beijing. Chinese authorities have said they would not allow ByteDance to sell the algorithms used by TikTok, which are believed to carry much of the app’s value.
Donald Trump announced on September 19 that he had approved a deal for Oracle to buy TikTok
Trump said Oracle and Walmart plan to establish a $ 5 billion fund “for the education of American youth” as part of the deal.
At a rally in North Carolina last week, he said that he had said to company leaders, ‘do me a favor, could you put $ 5 billion into a fund for education, so we can educate people about the real history of our country? , not the false story.
Sources told Bloomberg that the grant money would come from a public offering in about a year.
ByteDance first heard about the $ 5 billion education fund through news reports, a company spokeswoman said.
Trump has previously criticized The New York Times Magazine’s ‘Project 1619’, which seeks to reshape America’s history around the consequences of slavery, and announced that he will sign an order to promote patriotic education through an initiative called ‘Commission 1776’.
The panel, he said, would be tasked with encouraging educators to teach students “about the miracle of American history” and planning to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
It is unclear if the billions of TikTok will be allocated to that order.
In a joint statement on Sept. 19, Oracle and Walmart said they and other companies involved in the deal plan to create an educational initiative to provide an online video curriculum that teaches a variety of subjects.
Four of the five board members of the new company will be Americans, according to Oracle and Walmart.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon will be one of the US board members, the retail chain said, but the other members have not been announced.
The company will push for more American ownership with a public offering of shares next year.
“Additionally, we would work toward an initial public offering of the company in the United States over the next year to bring even more property to US citizens,” Walmart said.
In their statement, Oracle and Walmart said that TikTok Global would “pay more than $ 5 billion in new tax dollars to the United States Treasury.”
Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chief technology officer, said TikTok was won in part by the fact that Zoom had recently moved a large part of its video conferencing infrastructure to Oracle.
He described Oracle’s technology as “much faster, more reliable and more secure” than its rivals.
TikTok said in a statement: “We are pleased that the proposal from TikTok, Oracle and Walmart will resolve the security concerns of the US Administration and resolve questions about the future of TikTok in the US.”
TikTok said that both Oracle and Walmart will participate in a funding round before an IPO, where they can take up to a 20 percent cumulative stake in the company.
The agreement will make Oracle responsible for hosting all TikTok user data in the US and protecting computer systems to ensure that US national security requirements are met.
TikTok said it is also working with Walmart on a “trade partnership,” but did not provide other details.
ByteDance had been racing to close a deal with the White House that would avoid a US ban on TikTok.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday that ‘key core technology’ should be maintained
Concerns had grown that a deal could allow China to retain some control of the company.
While negotiating an agreement, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that “innovation is the most important quality of business management, and it is also what we must overcome obstacles to do in the future.”
“The key core technology should be kept firmly in our own hands,” he added, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.
