By Stephen Bartholomeusz

Copyright smh

It is the nature of those investors, their links with Trump and the price tag of $US14 billion ($21.3 billion) that have raised eyebrows and sparked talk of crony capitalism.

In his first term as president, Trump wanted TikTok banned in the US, or sold to US investors. (He wanted the US Treasury to receive a $US5 billion fee for brokering the deal, before being told that would be illegal). He left office without any resolution of TikTok’s fate.

It is the nature of those investors, their links with Trump and the price tag of $US14 billion that have raised eyebrows and sparked talk of crony capitalism.

The Biden administration, with bipartisan support from Congress, passed legislation ordering TikTok to be sold or shut down because of concerns that the algorithm for the addictive app at the core of the social media platform could be used by China to manipulate public opinion in the US, where TikTok has more than 170 million monthly users.

The laws gave ByteDance until January 19 this year (a day before Trump’s inauguration) to sell the US business to a non-Chinese owned buyer. But on his first day in office, Trump signed the first of what are now five executive orders extending the deadline. Those orders may, or may not, be lawful.