A ban of TikTok in the United States has been avoided with an executive order by President Donald Trump to allow a buyer consortium to purchase the social media app for $14 billion.
Who or what consists of the consortium remains unclear as Trump said Oracle and Larry Ellison were involved in the deal of “four or five world-class investors.” Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch were also mentioned.
“What this deal ensures is that the American entity, the American investors, will actually control the algorithm,” U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Thursday.
Current TikTok owner, ByteDance, and affiliates will retain less than 20 percent ownership of the social media app, as reported by Business Insider Friday. ByteDance’s connections with China created American national security concerns and led to legislation signed by then-President Joe Biden in April 2024 that the Chinese-based company was to divest interest of TikTok by January 19, 2025 or face banishment in the U.S.
Before several pauses by Trump of the ban when he took office January 20, 2025, ByteDance lost a legal challenge of the legislation in the U.S. Supreme Court.
A $14 billion price tag on TikTok US is much lower than previous estimates, including $385 billion that Fidelity priced the social media app for in July 2025.
ICYMI: TikTok in the news
- Clock begins to tick for TikTok: China-based social media app’s days numbered in U.S.
- ByteDance refuses to sell as deadline to ban TikTok approaches
- TikTok case presents freedom of speech concerns
- Mark Warner: Trump ‘disobeyed the law’ with TikTok ban delay
- ‘Flouting the law’: Executive order by Trump extends TikTok ban in America again for 90 days
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the deal allows American users to continue to watch creator videos from around the world and post videos of their own. The US-owned algorithm will be audited by Oracle and “retrained and operated in the United States outside of ByteDance‘s control,” she said.
According to Trump, TikTok US‘s algorithm will not favor MAGA content but “every philosophy, every policy, will be treated very fairly.” Trump said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping “gave us the go-ahead” although the Chinese government has not officially signed off on the sale.
The U.S. government will receive a fee for facilitating the sale of TikTok, but will not have an equity stake in the social media app.
Groundwork is all ready in place by Oracle to manage TikTok’s American audience separately by working with the app’s US Data Security division in storing user data and guarding against potential data leakage into the wrong hands.
While lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, who is now vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a former technology entrepreneur, raised alarm about TikTok’s Chinese connections, ByteDance repeatedly said information about American users was never shared with the Chinese government.
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Rebecca Barnabi
