Pete Ross

I think we're looking at nearly a year now of are they or aren't they going to sell TikTok?

Is it or is it not going to be banned in the US?

So today we've heard the news that ByteDance, that's the Chinese company that owns TikTok, is selling 80% of US assets to a combination of people, three investors, Oracle, Silverlux and MGX, which is actually based in Abu Dhabi.

And there will also be some involvement from Affiliates of ByteDance's investors.

And ByteDance itself will keep 20% of the assets as well.

So lots of people involved in this new deal.

Seven members on a board who will have to be mostly American.

US people's data, US TikTok user data is going to be stored locally in the US.

And it will also be used to drive that algorithm, which means that hopefully, I think the plan is that US TikTok users will see content that hasn't been manipulated elsewhere, which of course, is one of the big fears about this platform, you know, whether or not there's any Chinese involvement in what American people are seeing.

Still some Chinese ownership, though, as you say, and of course, it's still part of a wider Chinese-owned platform.

Does it really lessen the security concerns?

So TikTok would dispute that it's Chinese-owned.

It says it has global investors and, you know, it would definitely put up a fight, I think, and challenge that assumption.

That said, it is very clear that ByteDance is a Chinese company and all that goes along with that.

There has been so much talk about the security issues.

Of course, that was behind the whole idea of banning it in the first place, which was brought in by the previous US President Joe Biden.

It is still banned on official government devices in several countries, including the US and also here in the UK.

We'll have to see whether this deal is enough to appease that.

I think that would be a big signal from the White House, wouldn't it, if...

they said, okay, you know, TikTok is now allowed back on government devices again.