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A framework agreement has been reached between the United States and China on the ownership of TikTok’s US operations – a deal that could avert a looming ban of the popular video-sharing app.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the breakthrough, stating that the deal’s objective is a “switch to US-controlled ownership.”
The announcement came during high-level trade talks in Madrid, with Bessent revealing that the commercial terms have been agreed upon.
President Donald Trump later posted on Truth Social that talks had “gone very well” and that a deal was reached on “a certain company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save.”
The agreement is set to be finalized on Friday when President Trump speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. China has yet to officially comment on the development. The news comes just days before a September 17 deadline, which would have seen the app banned in the US if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, failed to sell its American division.
The US Justice Department had long argued that TikTok’s access to American user data posed a “national-security threat.” ByteDance has consistently denied these claims, asserting that its US operations are independent and that no data has been shared with the Chinese government.
The company also argued that a ban would violate the free speech rights of its 170 million American users.
This framework is a significant development in a long-running saga that has seen the ban deadline extended multiple times by the Trump administration. The new agreement could finally bring an end to the uncertainty surrounding the future of TikTok in the US.
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