Tracy Mumford

From the New York Times, it's the headlines.

I'm Tracy Mumford.

Today's Friday, January 23rd.

Here's what we're covering.

After a high-stakes, years-long legal saga, the Chinese company that owns TikTok has struck a deal to create a new U.S.

version of the social media app.

Under the agreement, the company ByteDance has brought in a group of non-Chinese investors who will now help run the platform for its 200 million-plus American users.

Here are three things to know about the deal.

First, why is there a deal at all?

back in the pandemic as the app surged in popularity u.s lawmakers started to worry that it could be a national security risk with the chinese government potentially able to access personal information about americans or feed them propaganda that eventually led to a law that was supposed to have banned tiktok if it didn't break off from bite dance by early last year

But President Trump delayed enforcement of that law multiple times while he got personally involved in putting together a new arrangement of investors.

So the second thing to know, who are those investors?

ByteDance is still actually the biggest player, owning about 20% of the new venture.

Other leading stakeholders include some major investment firms and Oracle, the cloud computing giant.

Several of those new owners have ties to Trump, like Oracle's billionaire CEO Larry Ellison, who's made frequent visits to the White House.

It is the latest example of the Ellison family's rapidly expanding influence over news and entertainment in the U.S.

At this point, Larry and his son David control Paramount, which includes CBS, and are making a play for Warner Brothers Discovery.

And the third thing, what does this all mean for people who use TikTok?

The short answer?

It is too early to tell.