The Trump administration is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app’s global operations, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks, NPR reported.

Under the deal now being negotiated by the White House, TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance would retain a minority stake in the company, but the app’s algorithm, data collection and software updates will be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of TikTok’s web infrastructure.

That would effectively mean American investors would own a majority stake in TikTok, but the terms of the deal could change and are still being hammered out.

“The goal is for Oracle to effectively monitor and provide oversight with what is going on with TikTok.,” said the person directly involved in the talks, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the deliberations. “ByteDance wouldn’t completely go away, but it would minimize Chinese ownership.”

Forbes reported: The Trump administration and software giant Oracle — led by Larry Ellison — are discussing a deal to take over TikTok, according to NPR, the latest company that is rumored to be interested in buying ByteDance’s popular social media app to navigate around a U.S. ban.

A law passed by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden last year bans TikTok in the United States unless ByteDance sells the app — a move driven by national security concerns over ByteDance’s ties to China. The ban took effect Jan 19,  prompting TikTok to take itself offline for more than 12 hours, but the platform restored the service in the U.S. after Trump pledged to extend the sale deadline.

The ban is now set to take effect in about 75 days under an executive order signed by Trump, who has pushed for the platform to be taken over by a joint venture including ByteDance and new U.S.-based owners. 

TikTok has pushed back against the law and argued a sale of the app’s U.S. operations would be infeasible, claiming in a legal filing in may the proposed ban was “simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally.”

TechCrunch reported: The Trump administration is negotiating a deal that would see Oracle take over TikTok alongside new U.S. investors, according to a report in NPR.

Lawmakers passed a bill last year forcing Chinese parent company ByteDance to either sell TikTok or see it banned in the U.S. The app went briefly dark before the law took effect on January 20 — until incoming President Donald Trump said he would issue an executive order delaying the ban.

At the time, Trump also outlined his “initial thought” on a deal to save TikTok — creating “a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership”

In my opinion, I think people who really like TikTok might be hoping that the current administration will fix this problem for them.

President Trump signed an executive order on Monday seeking to hit pause on a law banning TikTok and to provide a liability shield to business partners of the popular video app, NPR reported.

According to the order, the law will be paused for 75 days and companies that work with TikTok will not be liable for doing so. 

The text of the order said this will give Trump’s administration time “to pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans.”

“Essentially with TikTok I have the right to sell it or close it,” Trump said from the Oval Office after signing the executive action on Monday. “We may have to get approval from China. I’m not sure. I’m sure they’ll approve.”

Trump said his administration will work on “a joint venture” between the United States and undisclosed other entities.

Trump’s action is tied to a TikTok law that took effect Sunday makes it a crime — punishable with stiff fines — for companies to support TikTok as long as the service is controlled by ByteDance, a Bejing-based tech company. Lawmakers from both parties, who passed the law in April, fear TikTok could cooperate with the Chinese government to use the app for spying or nefarious data collection.

Reuters reported: U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to restore access to TikTok has created a thicket of new legal questions for the short-video platform, along with new tensions between the White House, members of Congress who want the platform banned, and tech companies caught in the middle.

Legal experts said despite Trump’s order, service providers and app distributors like Google and Apple still face major uncertainty and potential massive financial liability for defying a law that banned TikTok in the United States unless Chinese parent ByteDance divested the company by Jan. 19.

TikTok remained unavailable to download on Apple and Android devices in the United States early Tuesday afternoon, after Trump signed an executive order on Monday seeking to pause the U.S. ban as one of his first acts as president.

BBC reported: President Trump has signed an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law that requires a sale or ban of the platform.

He says during that time, the US will not enforce the law passed by Congress last year and signed by former President Joe Biden.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, he said: “I tell you what. Every rich person has called me about TikTok.”

When asked by a reporter why he’s had a change of heart since trying to ban TikTok in 2020, Trump responded: “Because I got to use it.”

In my opinion, people who were previously using TikTok might have a sigh of relief now that they know their favorite app will return.

TikTok has announced that, after going away for about half a day, it’s service is coming back on in the US. The Verge reported. The company posted on X that it is “in the process of restoring service” and thanked President Trump for “providing the necessary clarity to do so.”

TikTok wrote: “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.

It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”

TikTok shut out US users last night ahead of the US federal ban’s deadline, displaying a message to users that said it was making its “services temporarily unavailable” due to the ban.

After the Biden administration declared that enforcement “will be up to the next administration to implement,” Trump posted today that he was planning to delay the TikTok ban. He said it would require that the app be sold, possibly with “a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50 percent ownership.”

NBC News reported: TikTok said its video platforms was coming back online after President-elect Donald Trump provided assurances necessary to the company’s service providers.

Just hours before the move from TikTok, Trump posted to Truth Social calling for the app to remain available.

Trump indicated in his post that he wanted it to be available on order to broadcast his inauguration Monday.

“I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order,” Trump wrote.

The Hill reported: TikTok said Sunday that it is “in the process” of restoring service to the U.S., just more than 12 hours after cutting off access to the popular video-sharing platform in anticipation of a ban.

Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday that he was asking companies “not to let TikTok stay dark” and planned to issue an executive order when he takes office Monday to give the app an extension.

A law that required TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest from the app or face a ban went into effect Sunday. In anticipation of the ban, TikTok shut down access in the U.S. on Saturday shortly before midnight.

In my opinion, it sounds like Trump is interested in getting “a 50 percent ownership” of TikTok in the United States.

Donald Trump has said he will “most likely” will give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a ban that is due to take effect on Sunday, on the eve of his swearing-in as the 47th U.S. president, BBC reported.

Trump told NBC News an announcement on the matter would probably come on Monday once he takes office.

It comes after the social media platform warned it would “go dark” on Sunday unless the outgoing Biden administration gave assurances the ban would not be enforced.

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law banning the app in the US unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform by 19 January. ByteDance has refused to seek a buyer.

TikTok said late on Friday that the White House and the Department of Justice had “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability.”

But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Saturday that TikTok’s warning it was about to go dark was “a stunt.”

“We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take action in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,” she said.

The Hill reported: The White House on Saturday called TikTok’s statement warning that it will “go dark” on Sunday unless President Biden steps in a “stunt,” arguing the app doesn’t have to take action before President-elect Trump is sworn in.

“We have seen the most recent statement from TikTok. It is a stunt, and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday,” outgoing press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre write in a statement Saturday.

“We have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration,” she added. “So TikTok and other companies should take up any concerns with them.”

TikTok wrote that “the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers” in a statement after the Supreme Court opted on Friday to uphold the law that will ban the app from the U.S. unless it’s Chinese parent company sells it.

9To5Mac reported: In a Friday night bulletin, TikTok issued a statement on what it calls a “possible shutdown” after tomorrow. In short, TikTok does not plan to remain operational in the United States through the weekend despite the Biden White House deferring ban enforcement to the. Trump White House.

Another read is that TikTok wants to show U.S. users what a ban would look like if the Trump White House were to enforce it. The law doesn’t specifically ban TikTok from service in the U.S.; it insists that China must divest from TikTok.

In my opinion, it is unclear what will happen to TikTok after the current administration leaves the White House and the upcoming one takes over.

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld a law that threatens to shut down the widely popular TikTok social media platform in the US as soon as Sunday, ruling that free speech rights must yield to concerns that the Chinese control of the app creates a national-security risk, Bloomberg reported.

The high court said Friday Congress’ “well-supported” concerns about Chinese data collection justified a law that singled out TikTok. The measure requirers ByteDance Ltd. to sell the American version of the video-sharing app by Jan. 19 or face a ban.

“TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the government’s national-security concerns,” the court said in an unsigned opinion.

The decision opens an uncertain chapter for TikTok and its 170 million US users. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to save TikTok and could choose to suspend enforcement of the new law once he takes office in Monday.

But the impact of that move would depend on the response of tech companies that host and distribute TikTok, including Apple Inc. and Alphabet’s Google. Under the law, those companies would face the prospect of massive fines for continuing to support TikTok, and they would have to decide whether assurances from the Trump administration provide sufficient legal cover.

CNBC reported: The Supreme Court Friday upheld the law requiring China-based ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok by Sunday or face an effective ban of the popular social video app in the U.S.

ByteDance has so far refused to sell TikTok, meaning many U.S. users could lose access to the app this weekend. The app may still work for those who already have TikTok on their phones, although ByteDance has also threatened to shut the app down.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration, upholding the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversaries Controlled Applications Act, which President Joe Biden signed in April.

“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” The Supreme Court’s opinion said. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.

TechCrunch reported: Just ahead of today’s Supreme Court ruling — which saw the nation’s highest court uphold the law banning TikTok in the U.S. as of January 19 – Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had a “very good” phone call with China’s President Xi Jinping, which included discussion of TikTok. In addition, the president-elect said that he would make a decision on TikTok in the “not to distant” future, but did not say what he will do.

Trump earlier signaled that he is no longer in favor of the ban, after urging the Supreme Court to block the law requiring the app to be shut down or sold by January 19, but in his message today he said he would make a decision in the future, but first needed “time to review the situation.” He also said the Supreme Court’s decision was “expected.”

In my opinion, it sounds like Americans who use TikTok may want to download their videos from the platform.