Ticking closer to deal on TikTok

Trump says China’s president approves the planned takeover of the app in the U.S.

- By WENDY LEE

A PERSON holds a TikTok sign in New York earlier in the year. The app has over 170 million users in the U.S.

President Trump said Friday that he has reached a deal with China to keep the popular social video app TikTok running in the U.S.

Trump said on his social media platform that he had a “very productive call” Friday morning with China’s President Xi Jinping. TikTok is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, a fact that prompted U.S. national security concerns over data protection.

He suggested that Xi had approved the planned takeover of TikTok in the U.S. but did not provide details on what the leader's sign-off entailed.

“We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” Trump wrote Friday.

He added: “The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!”

Trump had signaled earlier this week that an agreement was coming. For months, TikTok’s future had been uncertain in the U.S., due to the national security worries. Trump in his social media post did not reveal much detail about the deal but said this week that TikTok’s U.S. operations would be owned by American investors.