President Donald Trump’s administration has finalized a landmark deal to keep TikTok alive in the United States, touting it as a win for national security, American youth, and small businesses. Yet, beneath the surface, the agreement is stirring up a hornet’s nest of skepticism among lawmakers, security experts, and even some of Trump’s own allies. The deal, announced on Thursday, September 25, 2025, comes after years of wrangling over the wildly popular short-video app’s future in the US, with concerns about Chinese influence, data security, and the power of social media platforms at the heart of the debate.
In his executive order, Trump declared, “I have determined that the proposed divestiture would allow the millions of Americans who enjoy TikTok every day to continue using it while also protecting national security.” The order underscored TikTok’s reach—about 170 million Americans use the app, many of whom rely on it for their livelihoods or business advertising. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed the administration’s enthusiasm, calling the deal “great news for the millions of American youth who use TikTok,” and adding, “Their data will be safe and secure with this new deal. It’s also great news for all of the small business owners, who have really been able to make a living off of the use of TikTok as well.”
But the broad strokes of the agreement mask a complex reality. According to The Post, key Republicans—particularly those known as China hawks—were briefed earlier in the week about the new US-controlled company that will house TikTok. The administration pitched the new structure as a robust solution: the all-important recommendation algorithm, previously owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, would be reformatted and managed by Oracle, the software giant co-founded by Trump supporter Larry Ellison. Oracle’s role, as described by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, is to serve as “the great firewall of America.” Trump himself told reporters, “Oracle is playing a very big part. Oracle really understands this. So I think it’s going to be very well protected.”
The arrangement, however, is not a clean break from China. The algorithm—the engine behind TikTok’s addictive, personalized content—will still be leased from ByteDance for the next ten years. Oracle, despite its new oversight role, will not have unfettered control over how the algorithm can be changed or updated. “From a national security standpoint this isn’t so great,” a person with direct knowledge of the congressional briefing told The Post. “The algo will be leased by the Chinese to the US TikTok for 10 years and Oracle won’t have complete say in terms of how to change it.”
The financial terms also raise eyebrows. ByteDance will retain a 20% ownership stake in the new US-based TikTok entity, and the cost of licensing the algorithm—paid out of TikTok’s own revenues—has slashed the company’s valuation from an expected $40 billion to around $16 billion. Some lawmakers worry this means China stands to benefit handsomely from the arrangement, both financially and potentially through continued influence over the app’s core technology.
Security experts and former officials remain unconvinced that this arrangement truly addresses longstanding fears about Chinese surveillance and manipulation. The Biden administration, which previously rejected a similar plan known as “Project Texas,” argued that simply reviewing TikTok’s source code and storing data in Oracle’s US-based cloud was not enough. Jim Secreto, a former Treasury Department and national security official, described the new deal as “a cosmetic fix that trades long-term security for short-term optics.” The US Justice Department, in a legal brief, warned that “the suggestion that reviewing the source code would be sufficient ignores the size and complexity of the code.” The code base, developed by thousands of engineers worldwide—including many in China—would take years for a new, US-only team to fully understand, let alone secure.
Adam Presser, TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety, acknowledged in a 2024 legal filing that “a severance of the US TikTok platform from the rest of the globally integrated TikTok platform and business is not feasible.” He cautioned that isolating TikTok US would make it an “island,” less attractive to advertisers and creators, and likely unsustainable as a business. The code base, he added, contains “billions of lines of code developed over multiple years by a team of thousands of global engineers, including in China.” Without those engineers, maintaining and updating TikTok US would be a herculean task.
Congress’s skepticism is palpable. Republican Representative John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said he would be “conducting full oversight over this agreement, starting with an urgent briefing I have requested from the administration.” Moolenaar noted the proposed framework “could mitigate some of the ByteDance threat depending on the details,” but he remained wary that the arrangement might not fully sever operational ties between ByteDance and the new US TikTok entity. Craig Singleton, a senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, was even more blunt, calling the deal “Project Texas with new paint.” He warned, “A board seat for ByteDance or any continued role in maintaining the algorithm would flout Congress’s mandate and repeat the very flaws CFIUS already rejected with Project Texas.”
The political calculus is complicated. Trump, who once sought to ban TikTok outright during his first term, has reversed course. He now credits his 2024 election victory in part to a wave of pro-MAGA content on TikTok. As The Post reported, “I don’t think this is a hill anyone in the Republican Party is going to die on given how much the president wants this deal,” said a source close to the GOP’s China hawk wing. The interpretation of what constitutes “control” over TikTok—both in terms of ownership and the algorithm—now rests largely with the president, according to Congressional sources.
Meanwhile, concerns about TikTok’s broader impact on American society persist. As of 2024, US children averaged a staggering 120 minutes of screen time on the app every day. Lawmakers and health experts continue to debate the effects of social media on mental health and well-being, especially for kids. The Trump administration, while celebrating the deal’s benefits for youth and small businesses, appears less eager to confront these underlying issues.
As the dust settles, Oracle is set to brief Congress in the coming weeks, and hearings are likely in the months ahead. The ultimate effectiveness of the new safeguards—and whether they truly protect US users from foreign influence—remains to be seen. For now, millions of Americans can keep scrolling, swiping, and sharing on TikTok, but the debate over who really controls the app—and its powerful algorithm—is far from over.
With so much at stake, the TikTok saga is a vivid example of the tangled web of technology, geopolitics, and business in the digital age. The story is still unfolding, and Washington is watching closely.
