National security questions remain after Donald Trump's TikTok deal

Donald Trump just approved a deal that lets the Chinese-built TikTok algorithm keep running in the U. S., even after all that noise about national ￰0￱ same system lawmakers said was too risky is ￰1￱ this isn’t a done deal yet, ￰2￱ Trump signed was an executive order on Thursday that delays a ban for 120 ￰3￱ ban was originally triggered by a law passed in spring ￰4￱ instead of pulling the plug, Trump bought time for Larry Ellison, Silver Lake, and others to finalize a structure that keeps the app alive, keeps the Chinese code running, and gives American investors a chance to make money off ￰5￱ venture to run ￰6￱ while algorithm stays Chinese The plan is to carve out a separate “American TikTok,” run by a new joint venture controlled by ￰7￱ and ￰8￱ version will no longer be under the thumb of ByteDance, but it will still run on ByteDance’s ￰9￱ is the same recommendation system that American officials have spent years warning ￰10￱ of writing new code, the ￰11￱ just retrain and monitor the existing ￰12￱ White House published a fact sheet saying, “the divestiture puts the operation of the algorithm, code, and content moderation decisions under the control of the new joint venture.” They added that all recommendation models using American user data will be retrained and overseen by “trusted security partners.” What the sheet does not say is that a new algorithm will be built from ￰13￱ the plan is to slap a ￰14￱ layer on top of a Chinese algorithm, call it American, and hope it works.

There’s no clear answer yet on how deep this oversight ￰15￱ Larry and crew be able to fully audit the code, or are they managing a system they can’t fully see? And if ByteDance updates the algorithm, does the ￰16￱ follow those updates or stay frozen? No one knows yet. U.

S. data, at least, will be hosted in Oracle’s cloud centers, something that actually began in ￰17￱ that’s just ￰18￱ real question is ￰19￱ control, right now, is being ￰20￱ secure equity, ByteDance locks in profits The deal lets ByteDance keep its algorithm and get paid for ￰21￱ reported the joint venture will license the tech, paying ByteDance 20% of revenue and up to 50% of ￰22￱ also gets to hold a 20% equity stake in the U. S. business.

That’s an ongoing ￰23￱ Vance, the Vice President, told reporters the deal is valued at $14 billion. That’s way under Wall Street estimates , which had the ￰24￱ piece pegged between $35 billion and $50 ￰25￱ lowball figure only makes sense because ByteDance is getting long-term licensing ￰26￱ didn’t lose their ￰27￱ just leased it. Larry’s Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, an Abu Dhabi fund, will control 45% of the new company. A 5% slice is being held for a rotating list of investors that Trump said might include Rupert Murdoch and Michael Dell.

“They’re great people,” Trump said at the signing ceremony, not hiding the political nature of the invites. There’s already talk of a future ￰28￱ the company lists, it’s likely to go above $14 ￰29￱ is sitting at $14 billion and doesn’t have nearly the same ￰30￱ if ByteDance manages to pull this off, it could reopen its own IPO ￰31￱ company pulled back from listing in Hong Kong in 2021 after friction with Chinese ￰32￱ this American problem now outsourced and monetized, ByteDance could head back to the markets, licensing deal in hand.