TikTok question being swept under the rug

A TIKTOK DEAL has finally been reached. Almost. Pending agreement from Beijing, the app's owner, Byte Dance Ltd., has agreed to a joint venture that will produce an American version of TikTok that is majority owned by US investors.

- DAVE LEE

The deal has been described as bringing to an end a long-running saga over the app's future. In reality, it's merely sweeping it under the rug, conveniently taking it off the agenda now that the political will to tackle the issue has subsided.

That ByteDance will retain the maximum permitted 19.9% ownership is the merest of lip service to the law passed by Congress and affirmed by the Supreme Court. It does little to address the core concern and the reason any of this started in the first place, which was the worry over China's stewardship of a recommendation algorithm that influences more than 170 million American users.

The new arrangement, which closely resembles the proposed security measures that were met with scepticism by both Republicans and Democrats in 2023, will be accepted now thanks largely to President Donald Trump's change of heart: He believes he is popular on the platform and that it helped him win the election.