TikTok’s US app will use Chinese algorithm after sale

Beijing has said the US spin-off of TikTok to be sold to American investors in a deal orchestrated by President Donald Trump will use parent company ByteDance’s Chinese algorithm, reports the Financial Times. Wang Jingtao, deputy head of China’s powerful cyber security regulator, on Monday said US and Chinese officials had agreed a framework that included “licensing the algorithm and other intellectual property rights.”

He said ByteDance would “entrust the operation of TikTok’s US user data and content security,” without elaborating.

Trump, who is expected to finalise the deal when he speaks to China’s leader Xi Jinping on Friday, has again extended the deadline for the US app to be divested from its Chinese owner. The US president on Tuesday issued an executive order moving the date to mid-December—allowing time to negotiate and implement an agreement for greater US control of the app.