TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, has announced that it has finalized a deal to create a majority American-owned joint venture in the United States. The goal is to protect the data of American users and prevent a potential ban on the short-form video platform, which is used by more than 200 million people in the United States.
The agreement is a significant milestone for the social media company after a long controversy that began in August 2020. At the time, US President Donald Trump had tried to ban TikTok, citing national security concerns.
Trump later failed to implement a law passed in April 2024 that would have required ByteDance to sell its US assets by January 2025. Failure to comply with the law could have led to the platform being banned; the US Supreme Court also upheld it.
Donald Trump welcomed the deal in a post on the social network, noting that TikTok “is now owned by a great group of American patriots and investors, one of the largest in the world.”
He also thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for his cooperation and final approval of the deal.
“He could have chosen a different path, but he didn’t, and I highly appreciate his decision,” Trump wrote.
