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Company Announce announced on Tuesday that its US service is now part of TikTok’s USDS Joint Venture LLC, with parent company ByteDance holding just a 19.9 percent stake in the new entity. The rest is owned by Oracle and investment firms Silver Lake and MGX, as well as smaller investors including Michael Dell’s family investment firm. Oracle will store the US data and the joint venture will “retrain, test and update the content recommendation algorithm on US user data.” The new entity will also have “decision-making authority regarding trust, safety, and content moderation policies.”
The scattered details in the press release shed little light Pending questions From when the deal was first announced, such as whether a licensing agreement for the algorithm could be drafted in a way that would avoid the type of relationship with ByteDance that would be prohibited by law. Even the lawmakers who supported the bill appear to be in the dark. “Does this deal ensure that China does not influence the algorithm? Can the parties involved assure Americans that their data is safe?” House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) asked in a statement following the deal’s closing. “These are questions that need to be answered as the select committee oversees this transaction.”
Ratings Committee Member Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), one of the few lawmakers who opposed the initial bill and introduced another to repeal it, said in a statement that the deal is “once again causing uncertainty among many creators.” Khanna pledged to engage with people whose livelihoods depend on the app “to find the best way forward and to prevent changes that could disrupt the rapidly growing creator economy while prioritizing data security.”
Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who voted to approve the foreign aid package that included the divestment or embargo bill, later He sought to create a legal extension To complete the deal. President Donald Trump violated the original bill’s deadlines anyway, and Markey later He suggested abolishing the ban legally. Now that an agreement has been reached, Markey said in a statement: “This TikTok deal raises far more questions than answers.”
Trump played an important role in how the negotiations proceeded, as he talked about the TikTok deal With Chinese President Xi JinpingAnd at one point Joking at a press conference with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison saying they could “negotiate in front of the media” about the deal. Markey said the White House “provided almost no details about this agreement, including whether TikTok’s algorithm is truly free of Chinese influence,” despite repeated requests for details. The White House and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “This lack of transparency stinks,” Markey said. “Congress has a responsibility to investigate this deal, demand transparency, and ensure that any arrangement truly protects national security while keeping TikTok online.”
Adding to the frustration of many Democrats is the fact that some of Trump’s close allies, like Ellison, stand to benefit from the arrangement. “This deal helps Trump’s wealthy friends get even richer in exchange for turning TikTok into a White House propaganda machine,” said Energy and Commerce Committee member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who supported the initial bill. Written on X. “The sparse information provided does not address serious concerns about compliance with the law or address the national security threat posed by Beijing’s continued control of the platform.”