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Popular video toy and possible spying tool: TikTop app
Photo: FLORENCE LO / REUTERS
The US government has postponed the download ban for the Chinese video platform Tiktok, planned for Sunday, by at least a week.
The Ministry of Commerce announced on Saturday that the decision was made "in view of the latest positive developments".
US President Donald Trump and the company had previously confirmed that they had reached an agreement.
Tiktok's global business will be in a new company based in the United States, "probably in Texas," Trump said on Sunday night.
"It will be a whole new company. It will have nothing to do with China," said Trump.
The name of the company has already been determined: It will be called Tiktok Global.
Trump sees the TikTok activities as a risk to national security.
The US president fears that the information of the approximately 100 million monthly users in the US could be shared with the Chinese government.
He had called for the company to be sold to a US company or to be closed.
With two orders he laid the basis for the end of the app in the United States.
Tiktok and Bytedance countered that data from US users was stored in the US and did not reach China.
25,000 jobs
Tiktok has now announced that it is aiming for a deal with the US companies Oracle and Walmart.
The software group Oracle should process all data from US users and take care of the associated technical systems.
Trump and Tiktok announced that 25,000 jobs would be created in the United States.
A central demand of Trump was that US investors hold a majority in Tiktok.
In addition, it has only been officially announced so far that Oracle will take over a 12.5 percent stake in the company before an IPO from Tiktok Global and that the supermarket giant Walmart will hold 7.5 percent.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Bytedance will keep the remaining 80 percent of Tiktok Global.
However, one could still speak of a majority, since American investors in turn held around 40 percent of Bytedance, the newspaper reported, citing insiders.
No approval from Beijing required
The new construct could have the advantage that the deal would not require approval from the Chinese government.
The leadership in Beijing had previously torpedoed a direct sale of Tiktok's US business to the Microsoft software company.
It introduced a new rule according to which software algorithms can only be sold abroad with the permission of the authorities.
Trump, for his part, had rejected a deal in which Oracle would act as a technology partner of Tiktok with a minority stake.
The Department of Commerce then initiated a countdown for Tiktok to be kicked out of the American app stores.
Tiktok and Bytedance filed a lawsuit in Washington.
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US President Donald Trump on an election campaign appearance in Fayetteville, North Carolina
Photo: Chris Carlson / AP
What is new is that Tiktok will now transfer five billion dollars to an education fund in Texas, as Trump said at an election campaign appearance in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
He had previously requested that the US government should get some sort of commission for bringing about the deal.
The education fund should ensure that "the real history of our country is taught," said Trump.
A few days ago he announced the formation of a commission to promote patriotic education - the Republican justified this with the fact that the historical importance of slavery was currently being overemphasized.
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jpz / dpa / AFP
