Social media app TikTok has secured a lifeline in the United States after years of hearings, regulatory battles and high-level talks between US and Chinese officials. A complex restructuring that transfers majority control to US is underway, with investors including technology company Oracle, investment firm Silver Lake, and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp.
President Donald Trump’s executive order certified the pending agreement as a ‘qualified divestiture’, legalizing the social media platform again by removing it from foreign adversary control (in this case, China).
The deal, led by US tech giant, Oracle, gives American companies approximately 65 per cent ownership of TikTok’s US operations, while ByteDance and other Chinese investors retain less than 20 per cent. As part of the new group of owners, Oracle will provide US cloud services and data storage in the US, and apparently receive a licensed copy of the app’s algorithm.
This US transfer is a significant shift in the company’s operations and an on-paper win for President Trump’s White House. But the optics mask a harsher truth.
Deeply rooted issues
Imposing majority US ownership – and going ‘American-operated all the way’ – is a big step. But it is by no means a silver bullet to address the threats TikTok, and similar platforms, present to US democracy and national security.