"President Trump gave his formal blessing on Thursday to a deal for a consortium of mostly U.S. investors to take over the short video app TikTok, signing an executive order green-lighting the spinoff and saying it has "good controls" in terms of security and safety. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, but a law passed last year requires the parent company to divest or the app will be banned in the United States over national security concerns."
"At a signing event at the White House Thursday afternoon, Trump said there would be "probably four or five" investors in the new entity. He named Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Rupert Murdoch of News Corp fame, and Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell. A senior White House official said earlier this week the investment firm Silver Lake would also be involved. Vice President J.D. Vance, who has run point for the administration on efforts to forge a deal, told reporters the company will be valued around $14 billion, which he said he thought was a good deal for investors."
"Asked how data privacy for U.S. users would be safeguarded under the new arrangement, Vance offered few details, but said: "What this deal ensures is that the American entity and the American investors will actually control the algorithm. We don't want this used as a propaganda tool by any foreign government.""
President Trump signed an order approving a consortium of mostly U.S. investors to take over TikTok. A law requires ByteDance to divest or the app will be banned in the United States; the order finds the deal meets the "qualified divestiture" standard showing the app is no longer controlled by a foreign adversary. Under the deal ByteDance would own less than 20 percent and the new entity would be governed by a board with rules protecting Americans' privacy. Named investors include Larry Ellison, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Dell and Silver Lake. Vice President J.D. Vance said the company will be valued around $14 billion and American investors will control the algorithm to prevent foreign propaganda. TikTok says it has around 170 million users.
Read at www.npr.org
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