China's ByteDance gets Trump nod to avoid TikTok shutdown

FILE PHOTO: TikTok logos are seen on smartphones in front of a displayed ByteDance logo in this illustration taken Nov. 27, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he supported a deal in principle that would allow TikTok to continue to operate in the United States, even as it appeared to conflict with his earlier order for China's ByteDance to divest the video app.

ByteDance was racing to avoid a crackdown on TikTok after the U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday it would block new downloads and updates to the app come Sunday. U.S. officials had expressed concern that the personal data of as many as 100 million Americans that use the app were being passed on to China's Communist Party government.