Trump proposes 50% US ownership of TikTok, to issue executive order Monday

Trump proposes 50% US ownership of TikTok, to issue executive order Monday

 

The United States President-elect Donald Trump says he will issue an executive order to give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the video-sharing platform is subject to a permanent US ban.

He also proposed that the US should get a 50 percent ownership of TikTok.

Trump made the proposal on Sunday

in a post on his Truth Social account, less than 24 hours to his inauguration as the 47th President of the US.

This came as millions of TikTok users in the US woke up to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform.

Google and Apple removed the app from their digital stores to comply with a federal law that required them to do so if TikTok parent company ByteDance didn’t sell its US operation by Sunday

The Supreme Court in the US had ruled that a controversial ban on TikTok could take effect on Sunday.

The apex court rejected an appeal from the popular app’s owners that claimed the ban violated the First Amendment.

However, Trump took to his Truth Social on Sunday to announce that he would issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect.

According to him, this is to allow the parties to make a deal to protect US national security.

He said, “I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture.

“By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up. “Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.

“Therefore, my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose.”