President Donald Trump approved the TikTok U.S. deal on Sept. 25, signing an executive order that will give China-based ByteDance 120 days to finalize terms with American investors.

The United States in 2024 enacted a law that required ByteDance, a foreign adversary-controlled company, to divest itself of the popular social media app. Pursuant to the law, ByteDance will be limited to holding a stake of less than 20 percent in the new joint venture.

“We have American investors taking it over, running it,” Trump said at a news briefing on Sept. 25. “We have very good controls.”

Vice President JD Vance said, “This deal really does mean that Americans can use TikTok, but actually use it with more confidence than they had in the past, because their data is going to be secure and it’s not going to be used as a propaganda weapon against our fellow citizens.”

The vice president’s office had been working on the commercial component of the deal beginning in the spring.

This deal will give American investors majority ownership in the joint venture along with six of seven board seats. White House officials have said that these board members will have credentials in cybersecurity and national security. ByteDance will be able to appoint one board member but can take no part in security-related decisions.

The U.S. government will not take a stake in the new joint venture and will not be appointing board members.

Trump has pushed for American ownership of TikTok since his first administration, determining that China’s access to the app used by 170 million Americans posed a national security risk.

ByteDance and TikTok had previously given several proposals to the federal government to boost security without divestment, including the “Project Texas” plan that named Oracle as a trusted security provider. Negotiations spanned both the first Trump and the Biden administrations.

The government in 2022 was unsatisfied with these proposals, raising concerns about the data that ByteDance said would still flow from the United States to China, and the Chinese regime’s ability to influence the app because of China-based operations.

Researchers have warned that the app suppresses criticism of the Chinese communist regime, while other groups have raised concerns about the kind of content the app shows to underage users.

There was some expectation that the app would no longer be available in the United States after a law enacted in 2024 set off a countdown requiring ByteDance to sell off TikTok or cease operations, and ByteDance said the Chinese regime would not allow it to sell the algorithm.

On Sept. 19, Trump announced after a two-hour call with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping that a TikTok U.S. deal had China’s approval.

“They’re on board,” Trump confirmed on Sept. 25. He said he spoke with Xi, who told him to “go ahead” with it.

White House officials anticipate that TikTok will contribute $178 billion to economic development over the next four years.

This new joint venture also names Oracle as the trusted security provider, tasked with the training and security of TikTok’s infamous algorithm, but without ByteDance’s control of the code, officials said.

Senior White House officials said on Sept. 22 that obtaining the algorithm had been a “tough point of negotiation” but that the Chinese side had agreed that it would come under U.S. control, which is necessary to satisfy a U.S. national security law.

Officials have confirmed that Oracle and private equity company Silver Lake are among the investors. Trump said that Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch, tech founder Michael Dell, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison may have a role.