The US administration has recently said that a long-pending deal to transfer TikTok’s US operations into American-led ownership could be sealed this week in South Korea, potentially averting the app’s ban in the United States and reshaping US-China tech regulation.
Deal nears completion amid summit with China
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CBS’s Face the Nation that the two countries are “ironing out” final documents and expect Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to formally “consummate” the transaction during their upcoming meeting in South Korea this Thursday, according to an AP News report.
Under the agreement framework, TikTok’s US arm would come under a US-based consortium of investors, with China’s ByteDance retaining a minority stake. According to media reports, the new structure would ensure US control over the app's algorithm and data flows, a central national-security concern for Washington, The Guardian noted.
The deal would address a law passed in 2024 under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act which threatened a ban on apps owned by "foreign adversaries" unless the ownership changed. Despite the apparent breakthrough, major questions will still linger around legality, data security and how truly independent the app will become of Chinese influence.
For users, especially younger Americans, about 43 % of adults under 30 say they use TikTok regularly, this deal could determine whether the social-media app remains accessible and how its content and algorithm evolve, according to The Washington Post.
With Washington eager to show progress on its tech-competition agenda and Beijing equally focused on preserving influence in global platforms, this TikTok deal may turn into a key test of US-China tech diplomacy.
