Whether that makes the deal a good deal or a bad deal probably depends on your views on everything from geopolitics to Wall Street financial practices, but if nothing else, it’s an unusual deal that’s quite different from what many were expecting.
Let’s start with the American version of the TikTok app that will be spawned as a result of the deal.
According to the White House, the portion of the TikTok service that currently serves U.S. residents will be divested from Chinese parent company ByteDance. A new, separate “American TikTok” will be created and placed under the control of a joint venture that’s “majority-owned and controlled by United States persons.”
What it does not explicitly say is that American TikTok will create its own new algorithm from scratch.
The idea seems to be that any danger posed by a China-made algorithm can be eliminated by putting a U.S. filter on top of it. How this would work in practice remains to be seen. Will the U.S. have complete access and visibility into the algorithm, or will it essentially be trying to outsmart a black box? And could the U.S. filter be so strong that it kills the magic, resulting in a bland, adulterated American TikTok that no self-respecting teen will actually want to use?
There’s a lot of potential winners in this deal. Whether the American public is one of them remains to be seen.
