Trump Reclaims TikTok, Declares Gen Z Debt After Deal Secures App’s Future
WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump marked his return to TikTok Monday, telling the platform’s young user base they “owe me big” for preventing a potential ban and ensuring its continued availability in the United States. The post ended a nearly yearlong absence from the app and followed his administration’s efforts to restructure ownership of the popular social media platform.
“To all of those young people of TikTok, I saved TikTok, so you owe me big,” Trump stated in his video message. He continued, addressing the potential for future leadership, “Now, you’re looking at me in the Oval Office, and someday one of you are gonna be sitting right at this desk, and you’re gonna be doing a great job also.”
The return coincides with the finalization of a deal, signed into effect by Trump via executive order, that will transfer majority control of TikTok to a group of American investors. The agreement aims to address national security concerns surrounding the app’s original Chinese ownership, ByteDance.
Vice President JD Vance also reactivated his TikTok account, stating, “glad to be back on TikTok thanks to President Trump!” and promising “more updates from the White House, and maybe even some sombrero memes.”
While details of the agreement remain forthcoming, the new venture will license TikTok’s core algorithm from ByteDance.Tech giant Oracle, a key partner in the American investment consortium, will be responsible for auditing a copy of the algorithm and continuously monitoring it for security vulnerabilities, according to the proposed framework of the deal.
A central tenet of the agreement ensures that China will no longer have access to the data of US TikTok users. The move seeks to balance the app’s continued operation within the United states with safeguarding sensitive user data.
With Post wires
