United States President Donald Trump has given his “blessing” to a deal in which Oracle Corp would take over US operations of the video-sharing app TikTok. “I have given them my preliminary approval,” United States president Trump said during a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Saturday.
“We’re very close to a great deal with TikTok but nobody cares about that anymore. All they care about is ‘fill that seat’,” he added, referring to the Supreme Court vacancy.
President Trump said that Walmart would also be “buying in” to the deal. It’s going to be an incredible combination.
Trump said that he asked TikTok to set aside $5billion to donate to a program to educate people about “the real history of our country, not the fake history.”
Trump also said that “We’re getting very close to that deal and all of the technology will be maintained here, they’re going to move probably to the great state of Texas”.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott had pushed for TikTok to move its headquarters to the Lone Star State. Oracle employs about 2,500 workers in Austin, where TikTok recently opened an office, The Austin American Statesman reported.
Oracle became the final remaining bidder after TikTok rejected Microsoft’s offer last Sunday. The technology giants were competing to become a “technology partner” with ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, as the clock began to run out on an executive order from Trump threatening to ban the app until its American operations were sold.
The Commerce Department had said on Friday that Trump would be moving forward on a decision to ban downloads and maintenance of the China-owned app.
“At the President’s direction, we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of US laws and regulations,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.
Trump’s executive orders against TikTok and another China-owned app, WeChat, were to go into effect on Sunday when the apps would likely have disappeared from online stores operated by Apple and Google.
Ross said companies would be prohibited from offering internet hosting and other services to WeChat beginning Sept. 20. The same restrictions would go into effect on November 12 for TikTok unless the app is acquired by an American software company and Trump’s concerns about national security implications are alleviated.
However, people who have already downloaded the apps will still be able to use them. Concerns have recently grown about the app, which is popular among teens, as critics claim the app poses national security risks.
Trump said that “Additional steps must be taken to deal with the national emergency with respect to the information and communications technology and services supply chain”.
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