US President Donald Trump is set to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, on Friday in a bid to finalise an agreement that will allow the popular video-sharing app TikTok to continue operating in the United States amid threats of a ban.

Trump, who has praised TikTok for helping him gain young followers during the November presidential election, did not provide details on the nature of the deal, but implied he was looking to secure TikTok’s continued use in the US to appeal to young Americans.

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TikTok boasts about 175 million users in the US, making it one of the top five social media apps.

Still, the platform has been beset by troubles since last year, when lawmakers, under the Joe Biden administration, passed legislation to force the platform to divest itself of its ownership by the Chinese internet company ByteDance.

Both Democrats and Republicans supported the legislation due to security concerns that Beijing could have access to TikTok data and could spread Chinese propaganda through TikTok’s algorithm.

There are reports that Trump allies are set to buy the app, a move that could help US conservatives have more influence on young Americans who make up the majority of TikTok users, experts say.

Here’s what we know:

What deal is Trump aiming for?

It is hoped that a deal would allow TikTok to avoid a US ban, following legislation in April 2024 that banned the app from January 19, 2025, unless parent company ByteDance sells a majority stake to non-Chinese owners. Ideally, Trump is eager to strike a deal under which a group of US investors could buy into it instead.

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Details are still unclear, but the deal was agreed in Madrid on Monday, during trade talks between Chinese and US representatives.

Trump is now aiming to confirm that agreement during a call on Friday with Xi Jinping.

The China-based company refused to sell by the deadline of January 19, meaning the ban is technically in place. However, Trump’s government has not yet enforced it, with the president extending the deadline several times.

On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order that again extended the ban deadline until December 16.

According to US media, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, which quoted people familiar with the deal, the proposed agreement between Beijing and Washington is set to see a group of American investors control 80 percent of TikTok, while the remaining 20 percent will be controlled by Chinese firms, including ByteDance.

Trump, who first moved to ban TikTok during his first term as president, due to similar security concerns, has softened his stance towards the app in his second term. The US president credits TikTok for attracting young voters to his campaign in the lead-up to the presidential election in November last year, and has said American investors are ready to buy the app.

“We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it. And you know, the kids want it so badly,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.

“I had parents calling me up. They don’t want it for themselves; they want it for their kids. They say, if I don’t get it done, they are in big trouble with their kids. And I think it’s great. I hate to see value like that thrown out the window,” Trump added.

Who are the US investors wanting to buy TikTok?

Experts say the deal will help cement Trump as the “president who saved TikTok” in the US. However, they also warn that under Trump’s administration, TikTok could still be used to influence Americans adversely.

At least two of Trump’s closest billionaire allies are reported to be part of those whose companies are looking to buy the app: billionaire Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Silicon Valley venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz, and Larry Ellison, the billionaire cofounder of tech firm Oracle.

During the 2024 presidential election, Andreessen and his business partner, Ben Horowitz, donated $2.5m each to Trump’s campaign.

Ellison, who has a fortune of $362bn and is one of the world’s richest men, is even closer to Trump. The US president said in January that he would be open to Ellison buying the app. Reuters news agency also reported in January that, as part of initial negotiations with ByteDance, the White House had selected tech group Oracle, which is headquartered in Austin, Texas, to host TikTok data in the US.

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Taking over TikTok would further boost Ellison’s influence over crucial media channels in the US. In August, his son, David Ellison, took over ownership of media conglomerate Paramount Skydance, which counts news and entertainment broadcaster CBS as one of its companies.

Media expert Marc Owen Jones told Al Jazeera that, given the increasing authoritarianism in the US under Trump, there are similarly valid concerns regarding whether Washington might have access to TikTok data, and added that the deal should worry Americans who identify as being on the political left.

“Trump is all about himself in many ways,” Jones said, “So Trump is getting not just this deal but he is also getting essentially a media empire that’s going to be run by Trump-friendly allies who are probably going to make sure that this platform is not going to steer too far to the left.”

How has China reacted to the proposed deal?

According to US officials present at the trade talks in Madrid, Beijing wanted concessions on trade and technology in exchange for the TikTok divestment, but it’s unclear what Washington agreed to.

Many Chinese people see the proposed ban on the app in the US as unfair and discriminatory against Chinese businesses. TikTok is banned in China, while the local version, Douyin, is in use, but Chinese people have often voiced pride in the app’s worldwide popularity.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on the streets of Beijing this week, some residents said they would welcome a deal on Friday between Beijing and Washington to keep TikTok online in the US.

Some also expressed hope that the deal might lead to better relations between the two superpowers, amid an ongoing trade war instigated by President Trump, as well as existing geopolitical tensions relating to China’s increasing influence on the global stage.

China has consistently denied claims by US lawmakers that Beijing pressures apps like TikTok to collect personal information for the state.

Beijing has also condemned the US government’s attempts to force the app’s sale. When US lawmakers grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in Congress for five hours in March 2023 over the company’s relations with Beijing, the Chinese government issued a strong rebuke, claiming it would never force companies to mine data.

Does China pose a security threat to the US via apps like TikTok?

Experts say the US’s security concerns are valid.

“There’s really no firewall between the data that tech firms have access to, and [that which] the Chinese Communist Party, the state itself” can access, analyst Fergus Ryan of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute told Al Jazeera.

Why is TikTok so popular in the US?

The social media app is highly popular among young Americans, both as an entertainment channel and as a news source. About 59 percent of Americans under 30 use the app, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center, with those aged between 13 and 17 being the biggest group of daily users.

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US adults over the age of 30 are also increasingly drawn to the app, with usage within that group growing from 21 percent to 33 percent between 2021 and 2023. In total, about one-third of all US adults say they use TikTok.

Increasingly, TikTok is also a platform on which businesses can reach potential customers as they leverage partnerships with influential TikTok stars for advertisements.

The app has become a crucial way for politicians to reach young people as well, with Trump’s own account attracting 15.2 million followers.

According to Tufts University, young voters in the run-up to last year’s November presidential election showed a noticeable shift towards Trump: 46 percent of young people voted for Trump, compared with the 36 percent who voted for him in the 2020 elections. Overall, however, young people voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris (52 percent) over Trump (46 percent).