The White House said Saturday that a pending agreement between Washington and Beijing over TikTok would give Americans a majority of seats on the app’s U.S. board and control of its powerful recommendation algorithm.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaking on Fox News, said the deal would place six of the seven U.S. board seats in American hands. “This deal means that TikTok will be majority-owned by Americans in the United States,” she said. “The algorithm will also be controlled by America as well,” though she did not provide specifics.
Negotiations over TikTok’s ownership and its closely guarded algorithm have been a focal point in Washington for years, as lawmakers raised alarms that Beijing could use the platform to spread propaganda or collect sensitive data. A bipartisan Congress voted in 2024 to ban the app, a measure upheld by the Supreme Court in January.
Former President Donald Trump, however, has repeatedly delayed enforcement of the ban while his administration pursued negotiations. Earlier this week, he extended the suspension until December 16 after officials announced a “framework” for a deal had been reached.
On Friday, the White House indicated the agreement was finalized and only required signatures. But Beijing has publicly resisted handing over the algorithm, and China’s official readout of a recent Trump-Xi Jinping call made no mention of an arrangement, underscoring lingering tensions.
Trump, in his own account of the call on Truth Social, described it as “very productive” and thanked Xi for what he characterized as TikTok “approval.”
As part of the proposed structure, U.S. tech company Oracle — led by Trump ally Larry Ellison — would be responsible for overseeing TikTok’s data and security.
“All of the details have already been agreed upon,” Leavitt said. “Now we just need this deal to be signed.”
