Former US President Donald Trump who is set to be inaugurated as US President on January 20 has announced that he will restore TikTok for a period of 90 days to allow for negotiations. Trump said that his initial approach on TikTok is to have a US company take a 50 percent ownership of TikTok.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order,” said Trump.
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“I would like the United States to have a 50 percent ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up. Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”
The popular app that is owned by ByteDance has a following of over 170 million people in the United States switched itself off two hours before a law demanding that the app be acquired by a US-approved company or get banned in the country came into effect.
However, shortly after Trump’s restoration pledge, the app switched back on, saying it would work on a long-term solution to keep the app in the United States.
TikTok ownership has left a sour taste in the mouth of the US administration which alleges that China might use the app to access critical data in the US and, or influence US citizens.
However, ByteDance has maintained that despite the accusations, there has been no evidence showing that it has abused user data or handed any data information to Chinese authorities. The app has denied affiliation with the Chinese government.
