President Donald Trump said on Sunday that an agreement had been concluded to sell Tiktok American operations to a group of “very rich people”, a declaration which, if it is true, marks a central moment in the longtime battle on the future of the application in the United States.
In an interview broadcast on Fox News, Trump said that the buyer would be revealed in “about two weeks”, adding that Chinese approval would be “probably” necessary, but he expressed his confidence that Chinese President Xi Jinping would have the transaction.
A stay in a confrontation with high issues
The announcement follows months of increasing pressure on the Chinese mother company of Tiktok, Bytedance, to give in its American operations or to face a total ban. Trump has already extended the government deadline three times – more recently on June 19 – pushing the threshold until September 17, 2025.
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A spokesman for the White House, Karoline Leavitt, said that the extension aims to give the administration enough to “ensure that this agreement is concluded so that the American people can continue to use Tiktok with the assurance that their data is safe”.
Failure to comply with the sale would probably lead to Tiktok to be forced to leave the American and disabled application stores for American users, a decision that would affect more than 170 million Americans who are currently using the application.
A temporary breakdown revealed the issues
The urgency of the case was exposed earlier this year when Tiktok was briefly offline for millions of American users on January 19, the initial deadline of Bytedance to dive. Many users have encountered a raw message:
“Sorry, Tiktok is not available at the moment. A law prohibiting Tiktok has been adopted in the United States unfortunately, this means that you cannot use Tiktok for the moment.”
Access was then restored after Trump’s intervention, but the temporary power failure served as a glimpse of what could happen if the deadline in September is missed.
Who are the buyers?
While Trump refused to name names, he assured that the group behind the proposed acquisition includes “very rich people”. The previous expressions of interest in the acquisition of Tiktok come from:
- The former secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, who revealed earlier this year that he formed a consortium to buy the application.
- The star of “Shark Tank”, Kevin O’Leary, who previously said that the value of Tiktok could increase towards the Americans.
- The YouTube star Mrbeast, who alluded to interest, although more like a public gesture than an official offer.
- Frank McCourt, the billionaire real estate and former owner of the Dodgers, which launched “Project Liberty”, a movement focused on “Internet reconstruction” and expressed its interest in acquiring Tiktok to move control of users.
Despite the buzz, no buyer has been publicly confirmed, and it is not clear if Trump’s “rich group” rides one of these known parts.
Chinese approval remains a critical obstacle
The most uncertain variable in the process is perhaps the role of Beijing. Under the laws on the control of Chinese exports, any sale of the Tiktok algorithm, which is widely considered as the most precious asset of the application, would need the approval of the Chinese government.
Trump recognized this warning during his interview when he said, “I would probably need China approval.”
China previously showed a reluctance to allow the transfer of the algorithm behind Tiktok, in particular to an American buyer. In 2020, when a similar sale was launched during Trump’s first mandate, China has imposed new restrictions on exporting artificial intelligence technologies – a decision widely considered as an attempt to prevent unloading from unloading its engine of recommendation.
If it is finished, the sale would represent a rare Chinese-American technological decoupling, the one with diplomatic and financial consequences. Bytedance is one of the most precious startups in the world, and Tiktok is between 30 and $ 300 billion, depending on how the sale is structured and if the algorithm is included.
In addition, the sale could have wider ramifications on how the United States has been dealing with other Chinese technological companies. This also occurs at a time when President Trump increases trade tensions with China and other countries – including Canada, with which he canceled negotiations after Ottawa has advanced a digital services targeting American technology giants.
The Tiktok situation also testifies to a broader thrust of the Trump administration to regain control of digital infrastructure and data sovereignty. The vast user data of Tiktok and its influence in young Americans have made it a persistent concern for managers of American national security.
What is the next step for Tiktok: Deal or Ban?
With less than three months before the deadline of September 17, all eyes are now on the question of whether Trump’s mysterious buyers can finalize the agreement – and if China will allow it to proceed. Otherwise, the United States can again evolve to withdraw Tiktok from its digital ecosystem, although Trump has reported the intention to extend the deadline again.
“President Trump does not want Tiktok to become dark,” said Leavitt in a June statement, “but he is committed to ensuring the data of the Americans of foreign opponents.”
