JUST IN: Trump Officially Secures U.S. Control Of Social Media Giant, Ending China Control

President Donald Trump on Thursday officially announced an agreement that will pave the way to place social media giant TikTok under the control of U.S. investors.

Lawmakers voted last year to ban the app, which boasts more than 120 million users in the United States, due to concerns over Chinese government control over the app and its algorithm. A deadline was set for the Chinese-government linked firm ByteDance to sell its U.S. portion of the business was not reached by a set deadline, prompting the ban.

Shortly after President Trump took office back in January, the administration filed to delay the ban in order to provide additional time for a deal to be reached. Trump has repeatedly expressed optimism over a potential deal in recent weeks, while negotiations are widely expected to have played a role in ongoing trade talks with China.

During a signing ceremony in the Oval Office Thursday, Trump announced that an agreement had been reached after months of negotiations. Vice President J.D. Vance, who stood alongside Trump during the Oval Office announcement, said the agreement would bring the algorithm “under the control of American investors,” adding that further details would be unveiled over the coming days.

“This deal really does mean Americans can use TikTok but actually use it with more confidence than they had in the past because their data is secure and it won’t be used as a propaganda weapon like it has in the past,” Vance said, adding that the U.S. portion of the business will be valued at $14 billion.

The agreement received approval from Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said. The president added that tech giant Oracle would be among the U.S. investors in TikTok, though he did not provide details on additional investors.

When signing the order, the president noted that late conservative activist Charlie Kirk spoke to him about the value of TikTok in reaching younger voters on multiple occasions. “Charlie helped me a lot too! He said to me, ‘You should go on TikTok.’ And it actually helped. We got RECORD votes with the young voters,” he said.

Congress previously passed the ban last spring with overwhelming bipartisan support, granting TikTok a 270-day window to cut its ties with ByteDance or face a ban.

Instead of authorizing a sale, TikTok pursued a legal challenge on First Amendment grounds that failed in the Supreme Court. The unanimous high court ruling found merit in national security concerns relating to the possibility of CCP-directed data collection and manipulating its content algorithm.