By JOSH BOAK and SUMAN NAISHADHAM, Related Press
A framework deal has been reached for the possession of well-liked social video platform TikTok, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned after weekend commerce talks between the U.S. and China in Spain.
Bessent mentioned in a press convention after the newest spherical of commerce talks between the world’s prime two economies concluded in Madrid that U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese language Premier Xi Jinping would communicate on Friday to probably finalize the deal.
Bessent mentioned that the target of the framework deal on the social media platform can be to modify to US possession. Bessent mentioned that Trump and Xi would communicate on Friday to finish the deal.
“We are not going to talk about the commercial terms of the deal,” Bessent mentioned. “It’s between two private parties. But the commercial terms have been agreed upon.”
Chinese language officers have but to substantiate Bessent’s assertion and weren’t current on the press convention.
The assembly in Madrid is the fourth spherical of commerce talks between United States and Chinese language officers since Trump launched a tariff struggle on Chinese language items in April. Now, the 2 governments are planning for a potential summit between Trump and Xi, although nothing has been confirmed. Analysts say there are potential commerce bumps that would delay the go to.
Throughout Joe Biden’s Democratic presidency, Congress and the White Home used nationwide safety grounds to approve a U.S. ban on TikTok until its mother or father firm, ByteDance, offered its controlling stake.
Trump has repeatedly prolonged the deadline for shutting down TikTok, though the regulation permits for only one 90-day reprieve, and provided that there’s a deal on the desk and a proper notification to Congress. The present extension expires on Sept. 17, two days earlier than Trump and Xi are scheduled to debate the ultimate particulars of the framework deal. Though Trump hasn’t addressed the forthcoming deadline straight, he has claimed that he can delay the ban indefinitely.
TikTok is one in all greater than 100 apps developed up to now decade by ByteDance, a know-how agency based in 2012 by Chinese language entrepreneur Zhang Yiming and headquartered in Beijing’s northwestern Haidian district.
In 2016, ByteDance launched a short-form video platform known as Douyin in China and adopted up with a global model known as TikTok. It then purchased Musical.ly, a lip-syncing platform well-liked with teenagers within the U.S. and Europe, and mixed it with TikTok whereas preserving the app separate from Douyin.
Quickly after, the app boomed in reputation within the U.S. and plenty of different international locations, turning into the primary Chinese language platform to make critical inroads within the West. In contrast to different social media platforms that centered on cultivating connections amongst customers, TikTok tailor-made content material to folks’s pursuits.
The usually foolish movies and music clips content material creators posted gave TikTok a picture as a sunny nook of the web the place customers may discover enjoyable and a way of authenticity. Discovering an viewers on the platform helped launch the careers of music artists like Lil Nas X.
TikTok gained extra traction through the shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, when quick dances that went viral grew to become a mainstay of the app. To higher compete, Instagram and YouTube ultimately got here out with their very own instruments for making short-form movies, respectively referred to as Reels and Shorts. By that time, TikTok was a bona fide hit.
Challenges got here in tandem with TikTok’s success. U.S. officers expressed considerations in regards to the firm’s roots and possession, pointing to legal guidelines in China that require Chinese language firms handy over knowledge requested by the federal government. One other concern grew to become the proprietary algorithm that populates what customers see on the app.
AP reporter Mark Sherman contributed to this story.
Initially Printed: September 15, 2025 at 8:51 AM EDT
