U.S. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Saturday that an agreement aimed at placing the TikTok U.S. platform under local ownership has been reached and will be signed soon. The agreement will ensure that the United States has control over the application’s core algorithms.
This development is significant. Although the White House announced on Friday that an agreement had been reached, Chinese officials expressed different voices on the matter, and TikTok's final fate is still full of uncertainty.
U.S. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on the TikTok agreement on Friday, but details about the future development of the social media platform in the United States have not yet been made clear. Reports indicate that the planned new entity will be majority-controlled by U.S. investors and launch a new version of the app.
On Tuesday, President Trump once again extended the ban on TikTok, this time to December, to give more time for China and the United States to broker an agreement. Last year, the U.S. Congress passed a law with cross-party support requiring the app to be immediately sold or banned.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also recently stated that a framework agreement has been reached to ensure that TikTok completes some sales while retaining certain "Chinese characteristics." He explained this to multiple media outlets after meeting with Chinese officials in Madrid.
The reason why Congress pushed to ban TikTok was mainly due to concerns about China's influence on American teenagers. This negotiation between the United States and China not only involves the ownership and data security of the platform, but also stipulates that certain functions and features can continue to be retained.
The United States has not announced more details of the agreement, and China and the United States also have different positions and interpretations of the agreement. Whether TikTok's US business can be successfully launched and how it will develop in the future still needs to be confirmed and announced by all parties.