The chairman of the House Select Committee on China expressed significant reservations on Thursday about a proposed licensing agreement for TikTok’s algorithm, which is part of a plan for its China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app’s U.S. assets.
Representative John Moolenaar, a Republican, stated he is awaiting a detailed briefing on the arrangement, which White House officials have indicated would involve the new American owners of TikTok licensing its core algorithm from ByteDance. “I think anytime you have [China] with leverage over the algorithm, I think that’s a problem,” Moolenaar said during an event at the Hudson Institute.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The remarks follow an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on September 25, which affirmed that the plan to transfer TikTok’s U.S. operations to a consortium of investors complies with the national security stipulations of a 2024 law. The order provided a 120-day window to finalize the transaction.
Moolenaar further elaborated on his concerns, suggesting that a completely new algorithm may be necessary. “I just believe you have to have a new algorithm, and I don’t know that you can reprogram,” he said, citing technology experts who note the difficulty in fully understanding the algorithm’s inner workings. He described the overall situation as “still very much a work in progress.”
Last month, President Trump delayed the enforcement of the law—which would ban the app used by 170 million Americans unless its Chinese owners divest—until January 20.
The executive order outlined that the algorithm would be retrained and monitored by the U.S. company’s security partners, with its operational control falling under the purview of the new joint venture.
The agreement concerning TikTok’s U.S. operations also stipulates that ByteDance will appoint one of the seven board members for the new entity, with the remaining six seats held by American representatives.
To satisfy the requirements of the 2024 law, which mandated a sale of its U.S. assets by January 2025 to avoid a shutdown, ByteDance would retain less than a 20% stake in the U.S. version of TikTok.
