TikTok algorithm, key to the sale, in negotiations between the U.S. and China

The TikTokrecommendation algorithm is expected to be one of the keys to the call planned this Friday between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump , in which they could specify the pact announced this week to allow the app to operate in the US unrelated to the Chinese matrix ByteDance.

After the fourth round of trade negotiations in Madrid this week, the two powers reached a "framework agreement" on TikTok after months of uncertainty and extensions, as the well-known application of short videos has been on the thread several times to be vetted in the US country. 

Trump signed a decree this Tuesday extending the legal deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok in the United States until December 16, otherwise the application of the videos would be banned in that country.

Determining who controls, maintains, and updates the engine of recommendations is one of the keys to TikTok's success in the United States (150 million users).

Chinese Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng, quoted by the state press, has stated that Beijing will carry out technological export reviews "in accordance with laws and regulations" and supports trade negotiations between companies "on equal terms". 

On the one hand, in the US, the law passed in 2024 requires that any "qualified divestment" prevent a "foreign adversary" from having operational links with entities controlled, including those related to the operation of a recommendation algorithm, which hinders TikTok's operations in the US from maintaining links with Chinese ByteDance.

On the other hand, the export control regulation in Beijing prohibits Chinese companies from selling their 'software' algorithms, so the sale of TikTok should be expressly approved by the Chinese authorities. Moreover, Beijing has a 'gold stock' in ByteDance that entitles it to veto any decision.

No matter what, if TikTok eventually went under the control of an American organization, but the Chinese authorities vetoed the transfer of the algorithm, "it would be very difficult and costly to create another algorithm," US analyst Bill Bishop has warned.

"YouTube and the Met have spent a lot of money trying to develop an algorithm like TikTok has, and they haven't yet succeeded," added Bishop, who has raised the possibility for the US government to establish some kind of "transition period" so that it can continue to use the current algorithm controlled by ByteDance while trying to develop a new one in the US itself. "

It should be remembered that, like services like Google, Facebook or X, TikTok is blocked in China, where ByteDance manages Douyin, the original TikTok app, which is completely independent of the international version.