Washington, Sept. 17, (dpa/GNA) – US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he is not yet prepared to sign off on a deal between the social media giant TikTok and the computer software company Oracle until he further verifies what is in the proposal.
He also stressed that he would not be happy if TikTok’s parent company, the Chinese company ByteDance, was allowed to retain a majority stake in TikTok as part of the deal.
“They are giving me studies on the deal. It has to be 100 per cent as far as national security is concerned. I am not prepared to sign off on anything. We have to see the deal,” Trump told reporters. “They are going to be reporting to me tomorrow morning.”
Trump, citing security concerns, has issued an executive order that would ban the app in the US unless it is sold to a US company.
A previous deal negotiated with Microsoft fell through after TikTok’s parent company ByteDance rejected it.
Reports have suggested that the proposed Oracle deal would be a joint venture rather than the full sale of the social media app, a move that Trump said he would not like.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) is expected to review the deal and make recommendations to the president.
Part of the review will be focused on Washington’s national security concerns around TikTok, primarily centred around user data and whether the Chinese government would have access to people’s personal information.
GNA