Report from Reuters
In Brief – House Select Committee on China Chair John Moolenaar (R-MI) remains concerned that the deal to transfer control of TikTok’s US assets to US buyers could be problematic if the US platform licenses the content algorithm from China-based ByteDance. He says that any Chinese leverage over the algorithm poses “serious concerns” and believes that the US business should use a new, independently developed system. President Trump, who campaigned to keep TikTok operating in the US and pressed all year for a deal to address the demands of the legislation enacted by Congress, has given the new ownership group until January 20, 2026, to finalize the transaction. Under the plan announced in September, ByteDance would retain less than a 20% stake in the new US business entity, while the algorithm that determines what is shown to individual users has been described as being licensed from ByteDance. Moolenaar called the arrangement a “work in progress”.
Context – Stretching back to 2020, there were always two threads to the national security arguments raised by those concerned about TikTok’s growing influence. One was that the Chinese Government could compel the company to give it access to US user data that could be used for intelligence purposes. The second was that the Chinese Government could compel the company to manipulate the TikTok content algorithms to influence US public opinion and undermine social cohesion. Restricting access to user data should be easier to deal with as it can be limited to the US company and held in US-based servers without giving access to any China-based officials. The algorithm has always been a harder nut to crack. It is unique, highly complex, non-transparent, ever-changing, and essential to the platform’s success. US intelligence services briefed Congress in the run up to key votes in 2024 and the courts as well, all in largely classified forums. The true fate of the algorithms remains the key issue, and the meat of the arguments about it are likely to remain classified, while domestic political concerns about the algorithm and the new US ownership group fall out along partisan lines.