A major high-level White House meeting Wednesday could decide the fate of the social media app TikTok, according to news reports.
Last year, Congress passed a bill, which former President Joe Biden signed, requiring Byte Dance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to divest itself of the app, or the app would be banned. President Donald Trump gave Byte Dance a 75-day extension on its January deadline, making Saturday the date for either a sale or a ban.
The concern with TikTok is that the Chinese government could have access to private information about users, because Chinese businesses have to give their government anything it wants.
Trump will meet with Vice President J.D. Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and national security adviser Michael Waltz, among others, according to NBC.
Trump said Sunday there are “a lot of potential buyers” for TikTok.
“There’s tremendous interest in TikTok,” Trump said.
“The decision is going to be my decision. … We have a great team of people thinking, essentially taking bids. We have a lot of people that want to buy TikTok. We’re dealing with China also on it, because they may have something to do with it,” he said.
Vance has also been upbeat that there would be a sale.
“There will almost certainly be a high-level agreement that I think satisfies our national security concerns, allows there to be a distinct American TikTok enterprise,” Vance said.
Should TikTok be banned?
A report from CBS News framed Wednesday’s meeting as a final session to approve a sale.
CBS said investors are likely to include Blackstone, Oracle, “blue chip private equity firms, venture capital firms, and major investors in the technology industry.”
NBC had listed entrepreneur Reid Rasner, CEO of Omnivest Financial, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, in partnership with businessman Frank McCourt, as being among the bidders for TikTok.
Jesse Tinsley, the founder of Employer.com, says he has assembled a $30 billion bid in a group that includes the CEO of Roblox, the video game platform, according to the Associated Press.
NBC said TikTok’s worth has been estimated as high as $50 billion.
CBS noted that on Sunday, Trump said, “I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”
On Monday, he said there was “a lot of enthusiasm for TikTok.”
CNN indicated that there is an expectation that if the outlines of a deal are agreed to, Trump could extend the Saturday deadline until the deal is finalized.
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