Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday that the United States has “successfully separated” TikTok from its Chinese parent ByteDance and can now “control people’s data security.”
Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Vance stated, “We can ensure that the algorithm is not being used as a propaganda tool by a foreign government.” He said he feels “very confident” about the platform’s future in the U.S. after months of legal and political battles.
The social media platform has long faced scrutiny for its data practices and ties to Beijing. After former President Joe Biden signed a national security law that effectively banned TikTok from U.S. app stores, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday approving a proposal to let the app keep operating in the country under a new structure.
Trump signs order creating new U.S. TikTok company
Vance said, “The way that we’ve set up this deal from a national security perspective is that it’s the American investors and the American businesspeople who will make the determination about what’s actually happening with TikTok.”
He added that the agreement values the business at $14 billion. Under Trump’s order, a new joint-venture company will oversee TikTok’s U.S. operations, with ByteDance holding less than a 20% stake.
Among the investors in the new company are Oracle, private-equity firm Silver Lake, and the Abu Dhabi-based MGX investment fund.
Other ByteDance investors, including General Atlantic, Susquehanna, and Sequoia, are expected to contribute equity to the new U.S. entity. The federal government will not take an equity stake or a so-called golden share in the operation.
Vance said, “At the end of the day, I believe that north of 80% of the company will be owned by the American investors and their partners. This is not something where the Chinese or any Chinese entity has a large stake of the table.” On the day Trump signed the order, he said Chinese President Xi Jinping gave the deal the go-ahead, while Vance said the Chinese government showed some resistance.
So far, ByteDance has not publicly acknowledged Trump’s executive order or confirmed that the transaction is taking place, as Cryptopolitan reported. There has also been no sign that the Chinese government has changed its laws to allow such a deal to move forward.
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