ByteDance expected to retain one board seat in TikTok’s U.S. operations, lose control over algorithm
A U.S.-China agreement on TikTok’s U.S. operations includes China’s ByteDance choosing one of seven board members for the new entity, with Americans holding the six other seats, the Reuters news agency reported, citing a senior White House official.
President Donald Trump said on Friday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had made progress on a TikTok agreement in a phone call and would meet face-to-face in six weeks. But Beijing’s statements have not clarified how advanced the progress has been.
The senior White House official said Trump would extend the latest pause in enforcement of the 2024 law for an additional 120 days, suggesting the next deadline for an agreement to be finalized would be in April.
The agreement will require that all data on American users will be stored on U.S. cloud computing infrastructure run by U.S. software firm Oracle ORCL.N, the source said, adding that the TikTok algorithm “will be secured, retrained and operated in the United States outside of ByteDance’s control.”
The official said U.S. users would still be able to use TikTok to interact with content from around the world.
According to the official, TikTok’s U.S. assets would be majority-owned by American investors and operated in the United States by a board of directors with national security and cybersecurity credentials. Meanwhile, ByteDance’s current shareholders include Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, and KKR KKR.N. ByteDance would hold less than 20% of the stock of a joint venture controlling TikTok’s U.S. operations.
