President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that he says will allow TikTok to continue operating in the US in a way that meets national security concerns laid out in a law passed by Congress last year.
TikTok was originally supposed to go dark in the US after Congress banned it last year over concerns about how ByteDance, the video-sharing app's Chinese-owned parent company, handled user daata.
But Mr Trump has signed several orders that have allowed the platform to keep operating in the US, as his administration tries to reach an agreement for the sale of the company.
"A plan has been presented to me to undergo a qualified divestiture of TikTok's United States operations, as outlined in a framework agreement," the executive order states. "Under this Framework Agreement, TikTok's United States application will be operated by a newly established joint venture based in the United States."
Much is unknown about the actual deal in the works, but Mr Trump said on Thursday that Chinese President Xi Jinping has agreed to move forward with it. Mr Trump made a similar claim in the past that the Chinese embassy denied.
The composition of the buyers' group is not yet final, but Oracle, Silver Lake Management and Abu Dhabi-based investment company MGX are in talks to invest in a US version of TikTok and receive board seats in the new venture, Bloomberg reported.
The executive order is a declaration by Mr Trump that the proposed deal meets the security concerns laid out in the law. And it gives all parties involved in negotiations another 120-day reprieve from the effects of the law to finalise a deal.
Young people especially “really wanted this to happen”, Mr Trump said during the signing ceremony.
Any major change to the popular video platform could have a huge effect on how Americans – particularly young adults and teenagers – get information online.
About 43 per cent of US adults under the age of 30 say they regularly get news from TikTok, higher than any other social media app including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, according to a Pew Research Centre report.
