The United States government has outlined an agreement that would place TikTok’s American operations under the oversight of Oracle and a group of U.S. investors.
This was done in an effort to address security concerns linked to the platform’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
According to a senior White House official, the plan would create a joint venture majority-owned by American firms, including Oracle and investment company Silver Lake Partners.
Media executive Rupert Murdoch and Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell are expected to join the investor group. ByteDance would retain less than 20 percent of the U.S. business and hold only one seat on a seven-member board. The company would not be eligible to chair the board or participate in the security committee.
The White House confirmed that the U.S. government itself will not hold a stake in the venture. Instead, Oracle will act as the “U.S. security partner,” responsible for monitoring TikTok’s recommendation algorithm, overseeing application development, and reviewing source code. “Oracle will operate, retrain, and continuously monitor the algorithm to ensure improper manipulation is prevented,” a government official told Bloomberg on Monday.
President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview broadcast on Sunday, September 21, that the deal includes “really great people, very prominent people… and they’re also American patriots.” He added that Oracle’s founder, Larry Ellison, will participate in the venture.
The plan is designed to resolve a prolonged dispute over TikTok’s U.S. presence. Lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns that ByteDance could be compelled to share American user data with Chinese authorities or allow the spread of propaganda. TikTok has about 170 million users in the United States.
On Friday, September 20, President Trump stated he had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping and was “confident” that the agreement was progressing. However, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on September 19 in Beijing that it had not given formal approval. “China’s position on the TikTok issue is clear: the government respects the wishes of the company in question, and would be happy to see productive commercial negotiations in keeping with market rules,” the ministry said in a statement.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that U.S. users will continue to be able to view content from abroad and share their own videos globally. “We are 100 percent confident that a deal is done,” she said, noting that final documents are expected “in the coming days.”
The agreement will still require approval from both the United States and China before it can take effect.
