Trump plans to sign a TikTok deal on Thursday; source: TikTok US would be run by a new joint venture company, with ByteDance holding less than 20% of its stock

This structure will comply with a bipartisan law passed in 2024 that sought to ban TikTok if the platform were not sold to U.S.-based owners this year.

NBC News 2025-09-25

Context & Ripple Effects

The proposed structure follows an earlier White House insistence that ByteDance cede control rather than retain a dominant stake. It also resembles the April outline for a U.S.-investor-led TikTok America entity with ByteDance at 19.9%.

The significance is less a conventional sale than a governance redesign: TikTok’s U.S. operation would be placed in a separate joint venture intended to satisfy the 2024 law while preserving a minority ByteDance holding.

First-order effects

TikTok’s U.S. business would shift to a new joint-venture operator, while ByteDance’s ownership falls below the statutory 20% threshold.
If the arrangement is signed and accepted as compliant, TikTok avoids the immediate disruption that a ban-for-divestiture framework was designed to impose.

Second-order effects

The new operator will need governance arrangements that demonstrate U.S.-based control, making ownership percentage only one part of the transaction’s practical test.
The deal provides a template for separating a U.S. platform business from a foreign parent without requiring a complete economic exit, subject to how regulators assess control.

Third-order effects

The episode points toward ownership-and-governance remedies becoming a durable tool for managing perceived national-security risks in consumer internet platforms.
Whether such structures become broadly reusable remains uncertain: their durability depends on regulators treating formal minority ownership and actual operational control as aligned.

The trend: Cross-border platform policy is increasingly pushing companies toward local control structures rather than simple market exit or unrestricted foreign ownership.

Discussion

@news_jul Julie Tsirkin on x
President Trump is expected to sign a deal TOMORROW to facilitate the sale of TikTok from a Chinese-based company to a group of American investors, White House officials tell me & @albamonica. All parties, including China, agreed to the terms, they say. https://www.nbcnews.com/..…
@shelbytalcott Shelby Talcott on x
Trump is expected to sign the TikTok deal tomorrow, an official tells me.
@timheuer Tim on x
Any deal that doesn't completely divest China control of any level is proof that administration doesn't take nat'l security seriously unless it benefits their agenda...and favors lining someone's pockets only. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
@theatlantic @theatlantic on x
With TikTok's potential sale to a group of Donald Trump allies, “we should be far less worried about what foreign governments could do with our social-media information than about how our own government might abuse it,” David Karpf argues. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@jessecharleslee Jesse Lee on x
The only reason Trump even cares about this is because he wants to have the algorithm run to benefit him. Trump giving things away on behalf of America in exchange for things that only benefit him is his absolute favorite.
@repdonbeyer Rep. Don Beyer on x
Trump cut U.S. military aid to Taiwan the *same day* he made a TikTok deal with Xi Jinping. And it turns out the financial benefits of Trump's TikTok deal are going to his own billionaire allies. Insanely corrupt. [image]
@edwardlawrence Edward Lawrence on x
A White House Official tells me President Donald Trump is expected to sign the Executive Order tomorrow saying the TikTok deal meets the requirements of the law allowing TikTok to avoid a ban. #TikTok
@davidgilbert David Gilbert on bluesky
“He does a brilliant job of being, let's call it the anti-Elon.” — Another unmissable edition of @jakelahut.writes.news's newsletter, where he looks at the power being wielded by Larry Ellison, who, as soon as today, could become the owner of the US version of TikTok — www.wi…
@jakelahut.writes.news Jake Lahut on bluesky
In Trumpworld, he's “the shadow president of the United States” to some, an enigma to others. But Larry Ellison has most certainly arrived as the most powerful billionaire in Trump 2.0... New reporting in Inner Loop on his political transformation, influence & more: www.wired.c…
@jakelahut.writes.news Jake Lahut on bluesky
“He does a brilliant job of being, let's call it the anti-Elon. He's not kind of feared directly, but people in the know in Washington know he has some tremendous pull.” - a Trumpworld source in the AI industry — www.wired.com/story/larry-...
@katie-drummond Katie Drummond on bluesky
Congrats to Larry Ellison, who is now a main character in the @wired.com politics Cinematic Universe. — @jakelahut.writes.news with what you need to know about the billionaire “shadow president” now cornering the market on your attention, and your data:
@davekarpf Dave Karpf on bluesky
My biggest concern about TikTok being sold to Trump-aligned American investors is that, at this point, there is far more cause for alarm from domestic surveillance than from foreign adversaries. — www.theatlantic.com/technology/ 2...
@chadstanton.blacksky.app Jack Tripper on bluesky
Someone's going to start some app called “Flizzer” or something, and we'll get a round of “Flizzers are in a total bubble that makes them irrational and invalid” while TikTok is held up as a paragon of neutrality. [embedded post]
@aaronrosspowell.com Aaron Ross Powell on bluesky
How are those projects to build TikTok style platforms on top of AT Protocol going? [embedded post]
@tyleraking.com Tyler King on bluesky
So like if I was one of the four journalists credited on this story I would ask why the president needs to “sign” a deal between private corporations. www.nbcnews.com/politics/don... [image]
@esqueer.net Alejandra Caraballo on bluesky
Tiktok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp will all be controlled by oligarchs in line with the regime. — Expect to see similar efforts to control Snapchat, reddit, discord, substack, and bluesky.
@esqueer.net Alejandra Caraballo on bluesky
This is the biggest self own Democrats have ever done. They handed control of the largest social media platform to far right regime allies. [embedded post]
@evanmcmurry.theatlantic.com Evan McMurry on bluesky
“At the rate things are going today, we should be far less worried about what foreign governments could do with our social-media information than about how our own government might abuse it.”
@anirvan@mastodon.social Anirvan Chatterjee on mastodon
“Over a drink earlier in Donald Trump's second term, one of the president's advisers described the Oracle cofounder, chairman, and chief technology officer to me as a literal ‘shadow president of the United States,’ if not necessarily the shadow president.” — https://www.wired.…
r/worldnews r on reddit
President Donald Trump is expected to sign a deal Thursday to facilitate the sale of TikTok from a Chinese-based company to a group of American investors
r/Journalism r on reddit
The MAGA Media Takeover
r/politics r on reddit
Larry Ellison Is a ‘Shadow President’ in Donald Trump's America
@metacurity.com Cynthia Brumfield on bluesky
Looks like the world is starting to question whether they can trust a US version of TikTok, particularly one partially owned by Rupert Murdoch. — Australia may have to choose between a Chinese TikTok and one owned by Trump's billionaire backers — www.theguardian.com/technolog…
@melindaclem Melinda Clem on bluesky
Wow, being on par with Chinese tech, that's *really* low regard from an Oz perspective. Really low. [embedded post]
@socialmedialab.ca @socialmedialab.ca on bluesky
“Would you rather a Chinese-owned TikTok or one run by a consortium of Trump-supporting billionaires? — That's the choice Australia is being asked to consider.” www.theguardian.com/technology/ 2...
@haydenstarr Hayden Starr on bluesky
Without a morsel of irony, senator James Paterson said “it would be an unfortunate thing if there was a safe version of TikTok in the US, but a version of TikTok in Australia which was still controlled by a foreign authoritarian govt.” — It's not about China. They want total c…
@sgdickinson S G Dickinson on bluesky
“Users of US TikTok won't enjoy any more privacy than with Chinese TikTok, due to lack of meaningful regulation of social media companies. They'll still be pervasively surveilled as they use the Net, both to advertise at them & for intelligence services to profile them” — (Par…
@sgdickinson S G Dickinson on bluesky
And the US TikTok precedent has been locked-in & now being raised elsewhere: — “Dr Dana McKay, associate dean in interaction, technology and information at RMIT University, said the best move from a data and security perspective would be for Australia to have its own local vers…
r/aussie r on reddit
Australia may have to choose between a Chinese TikTok and one owned by Trump's billionaire backers | TikTok
r/PoliticsDownUnder r on reddit
Australia may have to choose between a Chinese TikTok and one owned by Trump's billionaire backers

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