Trump: a group of big companies wants to buy TikTok

President Donald Trump said that the US and China have reached an agreement that will keep the short video app TikTok operational in the US, transferring its US operations from China's ByteDance to US owners, potentially resolving a saga that has lasted almost a year.

A deal on the popular social media app, which has 170 million US users, represents a breakthrough in months-long talks between the world's leading economies, which have been trying to defuse a far-reaching trade war that has unnerved global markets. Trump has not announced details of the deal. Any deal could require approval from the Republican-controlled Congress, which in 2024, during the Biden administration, passed a law mandating the divestment because of fears that US users' data from TikTok could be accessed by the Chinese government, allowing Beijing to spy on Americans or conduct influence-peddling operations through the app. The Trump administration repeatedly refused to enforce a law requiring the app to be shut down for fear that it would anger the app's millions of users and disrupt political communications, instead extending the deadline for divestment on three separate occasions. Trump credited the app with helping him win re-election last year and his personal account has 15 million followers. The White House launched an official TikTok account last month.

On Tuesday, Cnbc reported that the deal is expected to be finalised within the next 30-45 days and will include existing investors of ByteDance, TikTok's China-based parent company, and new investors. A deal was in the works in the spring that would have spun off TikTok's US operations into a new US-based company owned and operated by US investors, but was put on hold after China said it would not approve it following Trump's announcements of high tariffs on Chinese products...