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Anyone who knows me, knows that I can’t make a decision to save my life. Deciding on what to include in my daily editorial calendar is enough for a day. But yet, Donald Trump and the entire TikTok debacle is proving I’m actually okay, with new reports suggesting that the social media platform won’t in fact be banned. While it was set to be removed from the App store for U.S. users over the weekend, the President has back-peddled on his decision with a new deal endorsed by the policymaker.
According to varying reports, the details surrounding the deal are hazy. According to CNN Business, a deal between Oracle and Walmart and Chinese owner of TikTok, ByteDance, will see the original company keep an 80 percent stake of the video sharing application, while Oracle will become the app’s cloud provider and a minority investor with a rumoured 12.5 percent stake, dubbed the “trusted technology partner”. Walmart as the “commercial partner” will purchase the remaining 7.5 percent stake.
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Speaking to reporters, Trump said he approved the deal “in concept.”
“I have given the deal my blessing,” Trump said. “If they get it done, that’s great. If they don’t, that’s okay, too.”
But as the Australian Financial Review reports, some sources close to the deal have pointed out that 41 percent of ByteDance is in fact, owned by American investors, meaning “TikTok Global would be majority owned by US parties.” No wonder Trump is keen on the deal.
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The tension between the U.S. Government and ByteDance comes after India banned the application as well as 58 other Chinese-owned applications. It was feared that the communist-led country of China is stealing and storing confidential information from users in other countries. An official statement from the Indian Government at the time, said: “The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India. There has been a strong chorus in the public space to take strict action against apps that harm India’s sovereignty as well as the privacy of our citizens.”
ByteDance at the time reported that the ban in India alone would cost the company $500,000 USD daily and will cost 250-plus jobs.
Stay tuned for further developments.
