U.S. President Donald Trump announced a landmark deal with China to keep TikTok operational in the United States, marking a dramatic turn in the app’s tumultuous journey amid U.S.-China tensions. The agreement, finalized after months of negotiations, involves transferring TikTok’s U.S. assets from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to American ownership, with Trump signing an executive order to delay a 2024 divestiture law’s enforcement until December 16, 2025.

TikTok, boasting 170 million U.S. users, has been a global sensation since its 2017 launch by ByteDance, the first Chinese company to achieve such widespread success with a consumer app. However, its meteoric rise drew intense scrutiny from Washington over fears that Beijing could access U.S. user data or use the platform for influence operations. These concerns sparked a saga of bans, lawsuits, and negotiations, with Trump repeatedly extending deadlines for ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations, from January to September 2025, before securing the latest agreement.

The timeline of TikTok’s journey reflects its rapid ascent and the geopolitical firestorm it ignited. Founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming, ByteDance launched TikTok’s precursor, Douyin, in 2016, followed by TikTok in 2017. By 2019, the app surpassed 1 billion global downloads, but faced bans in countries like Indonesia and India over content and security concerns. In 2020, Trump’s administration targeted TikTok, issuing executive orders to ban transactions and pushing for its sale to U.S. companies like Microsoft or Oracle, while global regulators, including the EU and Canada, tightened scrutiny over data privacy.

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Despite legal challenges and temporary bans, including a brief U.S. app store blackout in January 2025, TikTok’s resilience persisted. The app’s $1.5 billion “Project Texas” initiative with Oracle aimed to secure U.S. user data, while CEO Shouzi Chew’s 2023 congressional testimony denied ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Recent developments, including a White House TikTok account launch in August 2025 and talks in Madrid between U.S. and Chinese officials, paved the way for the September framework agreement, with Trump hinting at a group of “very wealthy” American buyers.

This deal not only averts a potential TikTok ban but also redefines its future under U.S. control, balancing national security with the app’s cultural and economic significance. As negotiations finalize, the agreement underscores a fragile détente in U.S.-China relations, with TikTok at the heart of a global tech and power struggle.

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