When Trump administration officials announced that a TikTok U.S. deal was imminent, they stressed that the deal would bring the popular social media app’s algorithm completely under U.S. control.
“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” President Donald Trump said after signing the executive order to authorize a TikTok U.S. deal and give the parties 120 days to close it.
A law enacted last year had prohibited the control of TikTok by a foreign adversary—in this case, China-based ByteDance—based on national security concerns. Chinese law had prevented ByteDance from selling TikTok’s infamous and opaque algorithm, raising questions as to how control of this algorithm, which ByteDance updates frequently, would be handled in the new venture. According to White House officials, the new joint venture is meant to have complete control over TikTok U.S.’s copy of the algorithm and pay ByteDance a licensing fee….