MADRID (AP) — A framework deal has been reached between China and the U.S. for the ownership of popular social video platform TikTok, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after weekend trade talks in Spain.

Bessent said in a press conference after the latest round of trade talks between the world’s top two economies concluded in Madrid that U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping would speak Friday to possibly finalize the deal. He said the objective of the deal would be to switch to U.S. ownership.

“We are not going to talk about the commercial terms of the deal,” Bessent said. “It’s between two private parties. But the commercial terms have been agreed upon.”

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Remember that the problem with Tick Tock is that too many Western youths supported Palestine. Presumably, the benefit of American ownership is better censorship than we were getting from China.

    • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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      13 hours ago

      No. Palestine has almost nothing to do with it (and Tiktok “supporting” Palestine was vastly over-reported but whatever).

      The issue is that TikTok is very blatantly controlled by China. I am not aware of any specific studies but… the “support” of Palestine lines up with trying to destablize The West by bringing eyes to a polarizing issue that China has no interest in.

      And we have watched MANY elections get stolen by social media over the years. Look at Facebook in South America (and elsewhere) or Twitter in the US and arguably UK/EU.

      The pleasure box is fun. But no country should be allowing the propaganda arm of the CCP to have complete unfettered access to their population. Just like no country should allow for Twitter or Facebook to continue to do the same on behalf of other powers.