Just hours after a brief shutdown of TikTok across the United States, President-elect Donald Trump proposed to let the US government own 50 percent of the ﷺpopular short video-sharing platform.
Trump said he decided to rescue TikTok because ༒the platform, used by 170 million Americans, helped him reach young voters, has a "tremendous" audience, and the cessation of its operations in the U.S. would cost Americans jobs, as per the reports.
Read More | Ahead Of Ban, TikTok Goes Offline Across The US
Tik💖Tok went dark in the US on Saturday night because of legislation, but it was back within less than 24 hours after Trump vowed to issue an executive order on his first day in office to delay the enforcement of the law.
"We have no choice. We have to save ♒a lot of jobꩲs," Trump said at a rally on Sunday ahead of his inauguration. "We don't want to give our business to China. We don't want to give our business to other people."
Stating that the solution to the TikTok issue is a joint venture, Trump said, "They did that a long time ago when they had a different president. They didn't know that I was going to be the president. So I said, very simply, a joint venture. If you don't appr♋ove, they're out of business. They're worth nothing. If you do approve, they're worth like a trillion dollars."
"So, I said, I'll approve, but let the United States own 50 percent of TikTok. I'm approving on behalf of the nation. So, they'll have a partner, the United States, and they'll have a lot of bi𝕴dders, and we will do what we call a joint venture deal," the President-elect said.
"We're not putt🌊ing up any money. All we're doing is giving them the approval, without which they have nothing,” Trump said, adding, "♑Whether you like TikTok or not, we're going to make a lot of money."
Following Trump's comments, TikTok issued a statement saying it “is in the process of restoring serv♑ice.”
“We thank President Trump for provꦓiding the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties for providing TikTok toꦇ over 170 million Americans,” the company said, as quoted by AP.
The law, signed by President Joe Biden last April, required ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese pare✨nt company, to divest the app by January 19 ♍to avoid a ban.
While Trump's m♌ove has sparked hope among TikTok users, questions remain about how he will recoꩲncile his executive action with the legislation.
(With AP inputs)
