Remember the TikTok ban? The popular short-form video platform went down in the U.S. earlier this year due to a U.S. law that sought to break TikTok away from its China-based owners.
However, during President Donald Trump’s Inauguration weekend, TikTok went back online for U.S. users after Trump agreed to give TikTok and its parent company Bytedance more time to work out a deal to sell the company.
TikTok wasn’t in the clear, however, and the app still faced a potential ban in the U.S.
On Monday, however, it appears the U.S. and China have finally come to a tentative agreement on how to deal with TikTok. President Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed that a “framework” for a TikTok deal was agreed to by both the U.S. and China during broader trade talks in Spain. The Associated Press reports that Bessent shared the news during a press conference in Madrid.
Details of this framework deal are still unclear. However, China’s representatives also confirmed that the two countries agreed on a “basic framework consensus” on TikTok-related issues, according to the Associated Press.
Before Bessent shared the news, Trump hinted at the TikTok deal in a post on his social media platform TruthSocial.
“The big Trade Meeting in Europe between The United States of America, and China, has gone VERY WELL!” Trump posted. “A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save. They will be very happy! I will be speaking to President Xi on Friday. The relationship remains a very strong one!!!”
The law to ban TikTok due to national security concerns was originally conceived during Trump’s first administration, and the effort to ban the app continued under the Biden administration. Trump has previously stated that his campaign’s use of TikTok helped him win a second term, according to USA Today.
However, just this past July, Trump administration officials shifted towards a harsher tone in discussions surrounding a TikTok deal. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated over the summer that the U.S. had to have control of the platform and its algorithm, or TikTok would go dark in the U.S, per CNBC.
A looming TikTok ban has been a major concern for creators who have built a following on the app and depend on it for revenue.
