US key lawmakers wary of TikTok deal Trump administration is preparing
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The popular app, which has some 150 million users in the US, had stirred concerns China could access user data.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON - Lawmakers who pressed for the ban on the social media app TikTok expressed doubts about a deal the Trump administration is preparing for outside investors to acquire a half-interest in the Chinese company’s US operations.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said there was “great concern” in Congress about a tentative agreement unveiled this week by senior US and Chinese officials after two days of talks in Madrid.
The company’s US business would be acquired by a consortium that includes Oracle Corp, Andreessen Horowitz and private equity firm Silver Lake Management.
“It’s a dangerous platform. It has been misused and abused,” Mr Johnson said on CNBC on Sept 17. “And I think leaders in Congress have expressed our desire and our insistence that be ceased, and so I hope that the terms of this new arrangement accomplish that desired goal.”
Details were sparse and lawmakers were waiting to be briefed on specifics.
Representative John Moolenaar, the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on China, said the app “is a national security threat that allows a foreign adversary to collect data on Americans and manipulate and control the information they see”.
“I am concerned the reported licensing deal may involve ongoing reliance by the new TikTok on a ByteDance algorithm and application that could allow continued CCP control or influence,” he said in a post on X, referring to the governing Communist Party of China.
“Congress should scrutinise this deal to make sure Beijing-controlled ByteDance cannot be allowed to control or influence TikTok’s recommendation algorithm or user data,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat. “We must make sure that any deal protects national security and our economy, not sells out American interests to Trump’s benefactors and cronies in Silicon Valley.”
The popular app, which has some 150 million users in the US, had stirred concerns China could access user data and use the app to manipulate public opinion.
Company executives, lobbyists and officials in Beijing have repeatedly rejected the claim.
In 2023, calls for a ban accelerated after Hamas – designated a terror group by the US and the European Union – attacked Israel on Oct 7.
The platform drew criticism from lawmakers and industry leaders who said it was amplifying inflammatory posts, including anti-Semitic content.
“I’d want to make sure we control the algorithm and we control the data centres where the information is stored, that’s my two big things,” said Senator Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma.
As TikTok funded influencer lawsuits to fight the ban in 2024, officials from US intelligence agencies held classified briefings with lawmakers.
TikTok had sought to ease data concerns by working with Oracle to shield American users’ information in a US$2 billion (S$2.6 billion) effort called Project Texas.
But the initiative still left TikTok’s algorithm, source code and back-end support in China, according to comments by then head of the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark Warner, a Democrat, who supported forcing ByteDance to sell.
Lawmakers passed the divest-or-ban Bill in 2024 as part of a larger foreign aid bill.
The deal under discussion calls for ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to spin off US operations, Bloomberg reported.
ByteDance’s existing US investors would own about 30 per cent of the new business, cutting the Chinese firm’s stake to just below 20 per cent. BLOOMBERG
