TikTok users around the U.S. are probably sighing with relief, ’cause President Trump appears to now be cool with the social media app partnering up with Oracle and Walmart.
DT drastically changed his tune Saturday, telling reporters at the White House he’d given the deal his “blessing” while going on to sing Oracle and Walmart’s praises as trustworthy partners in guarding Americans’ data and privacy. Literally, a full, bizarre 180 here.
There were also some specifics … like the fact the new, U.S., ran TikTok would likely be based out of Texas, and that a bunch of new jobs would result.
He went on to guarantee the American version of the app would NOT be in any way affiliated with China, and that security would be a top priority. Trump also said TikTok would be ponying up $5M in charity money toward education causes, and would pay a lot of taxes.
Just a day prior, Trump was promising TikTok, as well as WeChat, wouldn’t be available to download come Sunday — because he was unhappy with the initial terms Oracle and TikTok had come to last weekend.
TikTok had actually resorted to legal action to stop the de facto ban, but it would seem talks over the past 24 hours — not to mention the inclusion of Walmart — made the guy cozy up to the idea. So, in other words, banishment averted … and influencers can carry on dancing.
TikTok itself appeared to confirm the news they weren’t going anywhere, saying they were pleased that the deal had addressed Trump’s national security concerns.
Ya gotta wonder what fundamentally changed in that sorta timespan — remember, there were reports that the parent company, ByteDance, wasn’t willing and/or allowed to give up its algorithm tech.
