
Algorithm Retrained and Monitored in the States
As of September 22, under an upcoming agreement set to be put in place between Chinese TikTok parent company ByteDance and the White House, the proposed American version of the app, TikTok US, would have its algorithm “retrained” and “monitored” by American tech company Oracle.

Weighing the Risk of Foreign and Domestic Influence
According to Bloomberg, Oracle operations of the app in the states would oversee content and the functions of the algorithm to “prevent improper manipulation and surveillance,” responding to the security concerns of US congressmen who passed the delayed, now to be made obsolete, TikTok ban in January 2025. While handing supposed control of the algorithm to an American company would hypothetically solve the risk of manipulation of the algorithm by international actors in China, it creates new worries of potential manipulation by partisan American actors. Oracle will also be responsible for “application development and source code review” of TikTok US. Critics on the other end, such as Senator Josh Moolenaar, question if the algorithm oversight would rid the app of the risk of foreign influence at all due to its ongoing reliance on the base of its old algorithm.

Previous Plans
The algorithm surveillance approach is the latest solution to the issue posed by the US law which banned the app, whose key point is that the Chinese government should not have any means to be able to control how videos are recommended to American users. A previous plan between Oracle and ByteDance to resolve this issue involved Oracle simply storing user data on American servers, but the Ellison-led plan was never approved by regulators.

Other Key Conditions
The news comes as the latest term of the proposed “TikTok deal” months in the making between owners of the app’s parent company ByteDance and US President Donald Trump. The current draft of the deal would see 80% of the American app and operations be owned by US investors, with ByteDance owning only up to 20%. Besides that, the new application’s day-to-day operations would fall to American tech company Oracle, including the new surveillance responsibilities.