Trump Signs Executive Order to Keep TikTok Alive

“We don’t want this used as a propaganda tool by any foreign government,” Vice President JD Vance said of TikTok on Thursday. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that is designed to pave the way for a TikTok deal between the U.S. and China.

The executive order is another step in the Trump administration’s efforts to keep TikTok running in the U.S. after Congress sought to ban the social media app in 2024. The deal can’t be considered complete until China signs off on it, industry experts said. Trump said on Thursday that he got the go-ahead from Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“We wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law, both because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s a legal requirement of the law that was passed last year by Congress,” Vice President JD Vance said at the executive order signing on Thursday. “So we think that we were able to do that. Of course, we’re going to keep on working at it.”

Trump also confirmed that Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Dell Technologies’ Michael Dell, and News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch are involved in the new TikTok deal. News Corp is the owner of Barron’s.

White House officials laid out the framework for the deal earlier this week, stating that a U.S. version of TikTok will be owned by a joint venture in which ByteDance will have less than 20% ownership. The shares will be majority U.S.-owned, and the board will have an American majority. Vance said on Thursday that the deal was valued at about $14 billion.

Before the singing of the executive order on Thursday, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy, reiterated earlier comments about TikTok, noting the government would be happy to see “productive commercial negotiations in keeping with market rules lead to a solution that complies with China’s laws and regulations and takes into account the interests of both sides” and said the U.S. needs to provide an “open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese investors.”

Former President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act into law in April 2024 that banned TikTok and other apps owned by ByteDance, unless those apps get sold to an owner that isn’t controlled by a foreign adversary.

The law was intended to address worries that a Chinese-owned algorithm could threaten U.S. national security by controlling the content fed to U.S. users.

But that algorithm is also an important piece of the TikTok puzzle, since its recommendations make the app popular and sticky with users. Details on how the new entity will control the algorithm remain unclear, but Vance said on Thursday that the deal ensures the American entity and the American investors will control the algorithm.

“We don’t want this used as a propaganda tool by any foreign government,” Vance said.

China would have to sign off on the algorithm changes, according to Gavekal director of tech research Laila Khawaja.

“It still requires review and approval from Beijing because the recommendation algorithms are on China’s Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export as an export-restricted technology,” Khawaja said. “This is similar to U.S. export control regime where Beijing will need to review and issue an export permit.”

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com