The White House on Monday said a US version of TikTok would feature a homegrown model of the app\u2019s prized algorithm, potentially clearing one of the main obstacles to keeping the Chinese-owned platform online in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Often described as TikTok\u2019s \u201csecret sauce,\u201d the fate of the video-sharing app\u2019s algorithm was one of the main question marks in persuading China to allow the platform\u2019s transfer to US ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A law passed under President Donald Trump\u2019s predecessor, Joe Biden, has forced current owner ByteDance to sell its US operations or face a ban of the hugely popular app in its biggest market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US policymakers, including Trump in his first presidency, have warned that China could use TikTok to mine data from Americans or exert influence through its state-of-the-art algorithm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has repeatedly delayed the implementation of the ban while the White House looked for a team of domestic buyers for TikTok\u2019s US business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of its ongoing trade talks with Beijing, it has also sought permission from Chinese authorities to allow one of their most successful tech champions to hand over the corporate reins \u2014 and algorithm \u2014 to Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the proposal presented by a senior White House official to reporters, TikTok\u2019s US operations would move into a new joint venture based in the United States that would involve a majority-American board of directors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US cloud giant Oracle, which already works closely with TikTok in the United States, would serve as a security guarantor for the algorithm, ensuring that it remained separate from any Chinese involvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 \u2018Fully inspected\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TikTok\u2019s content recommendation algorithm is \u201cgoing to be fully inspected and retrained by the security provider on US user data, and then it\u2019s going to be operated by that US entity,\u201d the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US official said the algorithm would be \u201ccontinuously monitored\u201d to ensure it is \u201cnot being unduly influenced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest updates came after Trump hailed progress Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping on issues including TikTok, after both leaders spoke by telephone for the second time since Trump\u2019s return to the presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump is expected to sign an executive order this week, declaring that the terms of the TikTok deal meet national security requirements, the US official said Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This would also help to assure doubters who worry that the arrangement between Trump and Xi could fall short of the US law\u2019s obligations by leaving too great a role for ByteDance, which would keep control of TikTok globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News over the weekend that \u201cthere will be seven seats on the board that controls the app in the United States, and six of those seats will be Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump separately added that conservative media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and his eldest son Lachlan could be among the investors who will take control of TikTok in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Venture capital giants Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake are also reported to be part of the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beijing, however, has said very little about any pending agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn the TikTok issue, Xi noted that China\u2019s position is clear: the Chinese government respects the will of enterprises and welcomes them to conduct business negotiations based on market rules, to reach solutions that balance interests and comply with Chinese laws and regulations,\u201d state broadcaster CCTV said after the Trump-Xi phone call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The White House on Monday said a US version of TikTok would feature a homegrown model of the app\u2019s prized algorithm, potentially clearing one of the main obstacles to keeping the Chinese-owned platform online in the United States. Often described as TikTok\u2019s \u201csecret sauce,\u201d the fate of the video-sharing app\u2019s algorithm was one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[3781,1676,1276,1338],"class_list":["post-8770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-algorithm","tag-tiktok","tag-us","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8772,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8770\/revisions\/8772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}