US President Donald Trump is set to sign the TikTok deal later this week after lengthy negotiations culminated in a “tremendous” agreement. The popular short-video app had sparked national security concerns last year — with Joe Biden signing bipartisan legislation to make parent company ByteDance set its US assets to an American entity or face a ban. Trump had extended the deadline multiple times via executive order amid efforts to keep TikTok available in the US.
Reports quoting White House officials said the divestment deal will include investment by Oracle and private equity firm Silver Lake. Its Chinese parent company will now own less than 20% of TikTok US — joined by a mix of its existing American and global firms as well as multiple new investors. Officials said the full list had not been finalized but included “real ousehold names”. Trump is expected to formalise the agreement via executive order this week.
The US government will reportedly not take a board seat or receive a golden share in the new entity. But it remains unclear whether the Trump administration will receive payments as a condition of approval.
Oracle to manage TikTok algorithm
Tech giant Oracle will receive a copy of the algorithm powering TikTok to operate for U.S. users, according to a senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday. Determining next steps for the algorithm, currently owned by the Beijing-based ByteDance, has been one of the most closely watched issues during negotiations over TikTok’s future.The Trump administration official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the emerging deal, said they believe the plan will satisfy national security concerns if TikTok divests from its Chinese parent, ByteDance.
“It wouldn’t be in compliance if the algorithm is Chinese. There can’t be any shared algorithm with ByteDance,” said a spokesperson for the House Select Committee on China.
Oracle would receive a copy of the algorithm and oversee the app’s security operations.
The algorithm would be “fully inspected and retrained,” the senior White House official said Monday. In a call with reporters, the official later emphasised that the content recommendation formula would be retrained only on US data in order to make sure the system is “behaving appropriately.” It is currently unclear if retraining the US copy of the algorithm on local data would essentially create a separate TikTok experience just for domestic users.
“The president will sign later this week an executive order, essentially declaring that the terms of this deal meets America’s national security needs,” the White House official said. He notes that Trump will then issue a 120 day reprieve in order to get the necessary agreements finalised.
Rupert Murdoch, Michael Dell involved?
President Donald Trump says billionaires like Rupert Murdoch and Michael Dell could be part of deal in which the U.S. will take control of TikTok. Trump discussed the deal on Fox News, highlighting the potential involvement of Murdoch and his son Lachlan. He also mentioned Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s involvement, which was previously disclosed.The deal aims to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. amid concerns about data security and manipulation by Chinese authorities.
