The White House on Monday announced basic details of a plan it says will “save” TikTok for the social media app’s 170 million U.S. users through a new ownership deal, although China has suggested a deal has yet to be finalized.
The structure would move TikTok U.S. operations into a new “joint venture” based in the U.S., with a majority of U.S. investors and owners and a majority of Americans on its board of directors, a senior White House official told reporters on the condition of anonymity. Software maker Oracle would serve as the security provider for U.S. operations, the senior White House official said, providing “top to bottom” security, including security of the algorithm. The structure brings the algorithm “under control of the U.S. joint venture,” the official said.
“It’s going to be continuously monitored as it operates to ensure that it’s behaving appropriately, right, that it’s not being used for any kind of malicious purpose, and that it’s not being unduly influenced,” the official said.
The official anticipated the president will sign an executive order later this week declaring the terms of the deal meet America’s national security interests, and extend the enforcement pause on the law banning TikTok for an additional 120 days.
Congress has effectively banned TikTok in the U.S. based on national security concerns, telling TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest or face a ban in the U.S., but Mr. Trump has paused its enforcement three times. Congress may still need to sign off on any finalized TikTok deal.
A possible sticking point in the plan to transfer TikTok’s ownership to U.S. parties is the question of who would control TikTok’s algorithm, the complex and powerful software code that has driven the app’s rapid growth around the world. Some policy experts think allowing ByteDance personnel to retain access to all or part of the algorithm could expose U.S. users of the platform to risk.
It’s not clear if any Chinese officials would be allowed on the board of directors, and investors are still being sought. The official said there has been “an overwhelming interest in this project” from “household” names that Americans would recognize. Over the weekend, the president indicated media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan would likely be involved somehow.
But Beijing has yet to publicly acknowledge a deal has been reached or a framework has been agreed upon. Last week, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Beijing would “support their teams in reaching a proper deal on TikTok through consultation.” And on Friday, the president said he had “made progress” on a TikTok deal during a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The senior White House official said they don’t have plans for additional talks with the Chinese delegation on behalf of the U.S. government.
“We feel confident that China has approved the deal,” the senior White House official said.
The president told reporters last week he may be a little bit “prejudiced” in favor of TikTok because he said it helped him win over young voters in 2024.
“I’m a little prejudiced because I frankly did so well on it,” he said. “It got me numbers that nobody’s ever even heard of before.”