In a scoop from National Public Radio on Saturday, it appears that there might actually be a resolution forthcoming to the complicated situation the Trump White House recently found itself in about the United States’ TikTok ban. The ban, passed by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden, states that TikTok would need to find non-Chinese ownership or be banned from use in the country.
When we last wrote about this story, just hours before President Trump was set to be sworn in as the 47th president, he spoke about how he might halt the ban on TikTok, by issuing an executive order, stating that the ban would not take effect for up to 90 days.
then on Day One of his return to the presidency, Trump signed an EO pausing the ban for 75 days, after the Supreme Court did not pause the law taking effect on Jan. 20. And as many people know, TikTok went dark for part of a day, before returning in the U.S.
Read More:
Trump Puts the Brakes on the TikTok Ban for Now With Executive Order
BREAKING: Supreme Court Rules on TikTok Ban
Here’s what NPR is reporting:
The Trump administration is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app’s global operations, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks.
Under the deal now being negotiated by the White House, TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance would retain a minority stake in the company, but the app’s algorithm, data collection and software updates will be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of TikTok’s web infrastructure.
…
“The goal is for Oracle to effectively monitor and provide oversight with what is going on with TikTok,” said the person directly involved in the talks, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the deliberations. “ByteDance wouldn’t completely go away, but it would minimize Chinese ownership.”
Other potential investors who are engaged in the talks include Microsoft.
This isn’t the first–or even second–time that Oracle has been mentioned as part of a White House-shepherded acquisition deal of the CCP-connected social media platform owned by ByteDance:
Back in 2020, Trump gave his blessing to a TikTok takeover attempt involving Oracle and Walmart that eventually fell apart. A source close to the discussions said the retailer is, at this point, sitting out after balking at the estimated price of the viral video app.
Then during the Biden administration, another potential solution to TikTok’s tethering to the Chinese Communist Party–involving the tech company–fell through:
A national security plan that also involved Oracle, known as Project Texas — which gained momentum during the Biden administration — fell short of guaranteeing TikTok’s independence from ByteDance, the staffer noted, but would not elaborate, saying it involves a security vulnerability that could have given China access to the data of American users.
Readers might recall that Trump recently floated the idea of the U.S. owning half of TikTok; this potential resolution reported about Saturday does not clarify that–at least, not according to one of the people NPR spoke to:
Some have suggested this means Trump is pushing for a partial nationalization of TikTok, others have chalked it up to imprecise language for a situation in which American private investors hold a 50% ownership stake in the company.
“Nobody seems to know what he means with the 50% equity comments,” the source involved in the talks said.
Congressional approval of any deal would seem to be one of the major obstacles, as the some members and many Americans continue to express major concerns that China and/or ByteDance could essentially Trojan Horse their way into controlling the app’s software:
A congressional staffer involved in talks about TikTok’s future, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said binding legal agreements from the White House ensuring ByteDance cannot covertly manipulate the app will prove critical in winning lawmakers’ approval.
“A key part is showing there is no operational relationship with ByteDance, that they do not have control,” the Congressional staffer said. “There needs to be no backdoors where China can potentially gain access.”
It would also need to be signed off on by both Google and Apple, who have not returned the TikTok app to its stores for users to download since the ban went into effect.
The report continued with what the next steps appear to be, as soon as next week:
Officials from Oracle and the White House held a meeting on Friday about a potential deal, and another meeting has been scheduled for next week, according to the source involved in the discussions, who said Oracle is interested in a TikTok stake “in the tens of billions,” but the rest of the deal is in flux.
Obviously, it’s still early days–both in the new administration and the tweaking of the way this TikTok deal might work–but it’s certainly an intriguing concept. NPR noted that Walmart, Oracle, Microsoft, Google, and the White House did not respond to requests for comment on the story.
This is a developing story. RedState will provide updates when more information becomes available.
