White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Saturday revealed further details of a deal reached between the U.S. and China over control of the popular social media platform TikTok, sharing that six Americans will sit on the seven-seat board that will control the company and that the U.S. would control the app’s algorithm.
“This deal does put America first,” Leavitt told Fox News on Saturday. “And let me just be very clear. This deal means that TikTok will be majority-owned by Americans in the United States. There will be seven seats on the board that controls the app in the United States, and six of those seats will be Americans.”
She added that the data and privacy aspects of the platform will be in the hands of Oracle, the software and cloud computing company co-founded by Larry Ellison. Leavitt also said the U.S. would maintain control of the app’s algorithm, which curates what users see on the app.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about who the six American board members would be and who would control the platform’s algorithm in the U.S.
A representative for TikTok also did not immediately respond to questions about the deal.
On Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the investors who would serve on the board are “all very well-known people, very famous people actually, financially.”
“It’s also controlled by very powerful and very substantial American people, all American, by the way, all American people,” he added.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week announced that the framework for a deal[1] had been reached while he met with Chinese officials in Madrid.
The Trump administration has long sought American control of the social media platform, which has over 170 million users in the U.S.
The app was briefly shut down[2] in the U.S. in January, just days before the president began his second term, as a result of a bipartisan law passed last year and signed by then-President Joe Biden that banned the app unless it was sold to a U.S. company.
Before he was sworn in, Trump promised he wouldn’t enforce the penalties stipulated in that law if TikTok continued to operate in the U.S. Trump has since used executive orders several times to extend the temporary reprieve[3] for TikTok.
Still, his administration has pursued the sale of the platform to a U.S.-based company or owner because of national security and data privacy concerns.
U.S. officials have cited concerns[4] about TikTok’s parent company potentially sharing user data with the Chinese government. Officials have also raised concerns about potential manipulation of the platform’s algorithm by the Chinese government for U.S. users.
On Saturday, Leavitt said that the administration is “100% confident that a deal is done.”
“Now, that deal just needs to be signed, and the president’s team is working with their Chinese counterparts to do just that,” she added.
Trump on Friday said he had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jingping about the deal over the phone, telling reporters in the Oval Office that the two “have a very good relationship.”
“The TikTok deal is well on its way, as you know, and the investors are getting ready. And I think China wanted to see it stay open too. They wanted to see it,” he added.
Trump has often credited young voters who use TikTok with helping propel him to victory in 2024.
“A lot of people in this country want it to be open,” Trump said on Friday, speaking about TikTok. “If it weren’t open, maybe, I don’t know. I think we won by so much, it wouldn’t have mattered. But we got a lot of votes. We got a lot of Republican votes from very young people.”
The president also referenced his previous disdain for the app. In 2020, during his first term, Trump even moved to use his executive power to ban the app[5] for national security reasons.
“It’s a great deal for all of the young people in the country that wanted it, and people generally. I was happy with it. Look, I wasn’t a fan of TikTok, and then I got to use it, and I became a fan, and it helped me win the election in a landslide,” he said.
References
- ^ announced that the framework for a deal (www.nbcnews.com)
- ^ briefly shut down (www.nbcnews.com)
- ^ to extend the temporary reprieve (www.nbcnews.com)
- ^ cited concerns (www.nbcnews.com)
- ^ use his executive power to ban the app (www.npr.org)