Trump cheers as TikTok sale is finalized
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, announced Thursday that a sale to U.S. investors has been finalized. This is the final step in a six-year legal battle between the U.S. government and the social media app, which was briefly banned in January 2025. Concerns over potential user data collection and influence operations by the People’s Republic of China, where TikTok originated, led to a national security law signed by former President Joe Biden requiring ByteDance to sell the app or have it banned.
Back in early 2025, approaching the ban deadline set by Congress, TikTok went dark for around 14 hours. But it soon came back online as President Donald Trump signed an executive order to prevent the law’s enforcement until sale to an U.S. investor was made. He signed an order in June 2025 extending the enforcement delay and another September 2025 approving a final sale.
The American investment group is led by software company Oracle, which will store U.S. user data locally. Oracle’s CEO is Larry Ellison, a prominent Trump supporter. Other investment companies involved include Silver Lake, Emirati investment firm MGX and the investment firm of Michael Dell, the owner of Dell Technologies.
ByteDance will retain just under 20 percent ownership and TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew will sit on the U.S. TikTok board of directors. Adam Presser will lead the U.S. offshoot as CEO. He previously worked as the app’s head of operations and trust and safety.
Some believe the deal is not fully in line with the 2024 law, which requires total divestment from ByteDance and “any cooperation with respect to the operation of a content recommendation algorithm.”
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The app has over 200 million users in the United States, and lawmakers were concerned that the “foreign adversary controlled application” had the ability to manipulate user data for ulterior motives. The law that proposed the ban or sale to a US entity was passed by the Biden Administration, but also championed by Trump in his first term.
Trump changed his tune at the start of his second term, vowing to be TikTok’s savior. On Thursday, Trump posted on his social network Truth Social praising the deal and said “it was responsible for my doing so well with the Youth Vote in the 2024 Presidential Election.”
“I only hope that long into the future I will be remembered by those who use and love TikTok,” Trump wrote.
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