Trump wants 50% U.S. ownership of TikTok

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday told his supporters that he wants Chinese-owned short-form video app TikTok to be at least 50 per cent owned by U.S. investors.

On the eve of his swearing-in, Trump told a rally in Washington that he would allow the app to continue operating in the U.S., “but let the United States of America own 50 per cent of TikTok.”

“TikTok is worth nothing, zero without an approval,” to operate, Trump said.

“If you do approve, they’re worth like a trillion dollars, they’re worth some crazy number.

“I’m approving on behalf of the United States, so they’ll have a partner, the United States, and they’ll have a lot of bidders and the United States will do what we call a joint venture,” Trump added.

The popular app blocked access for U.S.-based users for about 12 hours on Sunday.

This was due to a new U.S. law mandating TikTok either be sold by its current Chinese owners, ByteDance, or else be banned in the country, was set to come into force.

The app came back online after Trump, who is set to take office on Monday, said that he would issue an executive order reinstating the platform in the U.S.