On Saturday, President Donald Trump said that he has approved the Oracle Corp.’s bid to acquire the U.S operations of popular video app TikTok “in concept”. Earlier Trump has mentioned about the concerns related to the national security due to the data usage practices followed by the app and banning its usage in the country.
The Trump administration stated that they are concerned about the TikTok app because the app collects data on its US users and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance which is a Chinese firm could share this information with their government. This raises a serious concern regarding the national security although TikTok has frequently said such concerns are baseless.
During a campaign rally in North Carolina, Trump talked to reports and said that he had given the TikTok-Oracel deal his blessing. The Chinese government has to sign off it for the deal to be finalized and according the sources the Chinese government is willing to approve it. As long as ByteDance is not giving up the artificial intelligence algorithms behind TikTok app. Reportedly the A.I algorithm behind the Tik-Tok app is very powerful one and the company and government wants to retain it.
According to sources, in the agreement ByteDance will retain a majority of TikTok assets and app’s algorithm, and Oracle and other US investors having minority stakes.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that TikTok is pleased the deal “will resolve the security concerns of the US Administration and settle questions around TikTok’s future in the US.”
“As part of this proposal, Oracle will become our trusted technology provider, responsible for hosting all US user data and securing associated computer systems to ensure US national security requirements are fully satisfied,” the spokesperson said. “We are currently working with Walmart on a commercial partnership as well. Both companies will take part in a TikTok Global pre-IPO financing round in which they can take up to a 20% cumulative stake in the company. We will also maintain and expand TikTok Global’s headquarters in the US, while bringing 25,000 jobs across the country.”
Oracle CEO Safra Catz said in a statement that Oracle “will quickly deploy, rapidly scale, and operate TikTok systems in the Oracle Cloud. We are a hundred percent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok’s American users, and users throughout the world. This greatly improved security and guaranteed privacy will enable the continued rapid growth of the TikTok user community to benefit all stakeholders.”
