The US Has Reached a “final” Deal With China on TikTok.
The “will they, won’t they?” saga of TikTok and the US may finally be coming to an end. After nine months of delays, the US has reportedly reached an agreement with China allowing TikTok to continue operating in the US, which should be good news for the roughly one-third of Americans who use the app.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed this information on Sunday during an appearance on Face the Nation . Bessent told Margaret Brennan that the US “has reached a final agreement on TikTok. We reached it in Madrid, and I believe all the details are finalized today, and the two leaders should finalize the deal on Thursday in Korea.”
The Secretary of State did not disclose further details of the deal, but we know the US’s goals in preparing for the negotiations. Last month, President Trump signed an executive order defining TikTok’s future in the US, contingent on a deal with its parent company, ByteDance, and the Chinese government.
Under a law signed by President Biden last year, TikTok must sell its company to an American company or face a ban in the US. According to Trump’s executive order, it is a joint venture between various investors and American companies, including Oracle, which will now hold a majority stake in the company. ByteDance will retain a minority stake, controlling less than 20% of the company.
From previous reports, we also know that users will likely need to download a new version of TikTok . This American version of the app will look and function identically, but will ultimately come with a new algorithm, “retrained and monitored” by “trusted security partners” in the US. Your data will also no longer be collected and stored by companies in China; instead, your TikTok information will be collected and stored in a cloud environment controlled by the US company.
We won’t know the details of the deal until it’s publicly announced, but according to the minister, the deal is at least official. TikTok will soon be allowed to operate in the US without the risk of being blocked, although the privacy risks it poses may have simply shifted from one country to another.