By Trump Proposes U.S. Ownership of TikTok as He Sets Conditions for App’s Continued Operations
Ghazali Ibrahim
U.S. President-elect, Donald Trump made a declaration on Sunday, telling his supporters that he wants Chinese-owned TikTok to be at least 50 percent owned by U.S. investors if the app is to continue operating in the United States.
Speaking at a rally in Washington on the eve of his inauguration, Trump proposed a plan that would allow TikTok to remain accessible in the U.S., but with a significant shift in ownership structure.
He stated, “Let the United States of America own 50 percent of TikTok.”
Trump further argued that the app would have no value without approval to operate in the country, calling it “worth nothing, zero.”
However, with U.S. approval, he said, TikTok could be valued at “like a trillion dollars, they’re worth some crazy number.”
In his remarks, Trump indicated that the U.S. would take a hands-on role in TikTok’s future, stating, “I’m approving on behalf of the United States, so they’ll have a partner, the United States, and they’ll have a lot of bidders, and the United States will do what we call a joint venture.”
The comments followed a brief 12-hour outage of TikTok for U.S. users on Sunday. The disruption was a result of a new U.S. law that requires ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to either sell the app to American investors or face a potential ban.
