Trump signs order approving TikTok plan under 2024 divestiture law

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order declaring that a negotiated plan to transfer TikTok’s U.S. operations to a new, majority American-controlled entity meets the requirements of a 2024 law that threatened to ban the app unless its Chinese parent, ByteDance, divested its U.S. assets. The order paves the way for the short-video platform to remain available to U.S. users while the proposed transaction moves through further approvals, White House officials said.

Under the framework endorsed by the order, TikTok’s U.S. business would be moved into a joint venture in which U.S. and allied investors hold the controlling stake and ByteDance retains less than 20 percent. Oracle and private equity firm Silver Lake were named among expected investors, and Oracle is to provide ongoing cloud hosting and security oversight for U.S. user data. The executive order directs that recommendation models that use U.S. data be retrained and monitored by U.S. security partners to limit foreign access and influence.

The administration said Beijing has signaled its approval of the broad arrangement during recent talks between the two presidents, though Chinese authorities did not...