Donald Trump has signed a decree on Tiktok, which will allow the application to continue working in the United States.
The American president Interviews with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week – where the pair discussed the final terms of an agreement.
The application has been ordered to close American users by January 2025 if its Chinese owner – Beijing-The technological enterprise based on Bytedance – has not sold its assets in the country.
The ban was delayed four times by Mr. Trump.
The agreement, which, according to vice-president JD Vance, was estimated at around $ 14 billion (10.5 billion pounds sterling), will see TiktokThe United States operations are managed by a new joint company, Bytedance holding less than 20% of the stock, said a senior White House official before signing the agreement.
“There was a certain resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted Tiktok to work, but we also wanted to make sure that we protect the confidentiality of the data of the Americans, as required by the law,” said Vance.
File peak: Reuters
Mr. Trump said: “I spoke with President XI. We had a good conversation, I told him what we were doing and he said he was going forward.”
US officials have previously warned that Tiktok algorithm – a complex system of rules and calculations that platforms use to provide content to people’s flows – is vulnerable to the manipulation of Chinese authorities.
However, no evidence has ever been presented by American officials showing that Beijing tried to do so.
Concerns have also been raised about data from users shared with the Chinese government – something bytedance said it would not do and never do.
Trump tried to ban Tiktok during his first mandate in the White House, but has repeatedly credited the application, which has 170 million US users, to have helped him win the re -election.
The White House also launched an official Tiktok account last month.
Trump said that the Rupert Murdoch media tycoon and “probably four or five world -class investors” would be part of the agreement.
Vice-president JD Vance (left), and Donald Trump spoke of the White House today. (Pic: Reuters)
This also includes the co-founder of Oracle Larry Ellison. Mr. Ellison and Mr. Murdoch both have political and commercial links with Mr. Trump, raising new questions about the potential political influence on the platform.
Questions remain on the operation of the agreement, but Mr. Trump said that China chief Xi Jinping approved it.
About 43% of American adults under the age of 30 say that they regularly consume news from Tiktok, higher than any other social media application, including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, according to a report by Pew Research Center.