Quick overview

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed on Saturday that the US would control TikTok’s algorithm and that six Americans would sit on the seven-seat board that will govern the company. ”

 

America does come first in this deal,” Leavitt said on Fox News. “And I want to be crystal clear: As a result of this agreement, Americans will own most of TikTok.”

She explained that the board overseeing the app in the US will have seven seats, with six held by Americans. Leavitt also stated that Oracle, a software and cloud computing company co-founded by Larry Ellison, will manage the platform’s data and privacy features.

She added, “The U.S. would continue to have authority over the algorithm used by the app to select what users see.” President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “The investor,” emphasizing the US’s control. “It’s also controlled by powerful and very substantial American people, all American, by the way,” he continued.

When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Chinese officials in Madrid last week, he declared that a deal framework had been reached.

The US social media platform has over 170 million users, and the Trump administration has long aimed for American control of it. Just days before starting his second term in January, the president temporarily shut down the app in the United States due to a bipartisan law signed by then-President Joe Biden last year that prohibited its operation unless sold to a US company.

Trump pledged that if TikTok remained active in the US, he would not enforce the penalties outlined in that law. Since then, Trump has repeatedly extended the reprieve for TikTok through executive orders.