President Donald Trump announced on Sept. 25 that the U.S. government had established a deal with ByteDance and Chinese authorities concerning the sale of TikTok.
The previous week, Trump signed an executive order extending the deadline for TikTok’s sale by 90 days, moving it to December. In a video released by the White House, the president mentioned ongoing negotiations with Chinese officials.
“I spoke with President Xi. I told him what we were doing, and he said, ‘Go ahead with it,'” Trump said.
The announcement follows years of concern that TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, could share user data with the Chinese government, raising national security fears in Washington. While Trump said the deal was almost ready, Chinese authorities have been reluctant to issue any formal statement, leaving the fate of the popular app uncertain.
TikTok insiders, however, remain optimistic and assure that if the sale goes through, the transition for the users will be seamless. Nonetheless, some are concerned that a potential sale that excludes TikTok’s core algorithm could lead to a significant technical issue that degrades the platform’s performance. For many users, these possible changes are a source of anxiety as they navigate the uncertain future of the platform.
Brian Leung, a recommendation engineer at a social media company, expressed concerns about the ambiguous wording in Trump’s announcement about the delivery of an algorithm.
“It’s intentionally ambiguous, and what plays out would greatly determine how they actually translate that into implementation,” Leung said. “It is probably not feasible to just switch over in a short period of time and not give them a recommendation platform because that is part of the whole engineering entity.”
Other parts of the deal concern users, especially part-time and student creators. ByteDance is a large company with subsidiaries, including tools like CapCut, a powerful free video editor that plays a direct role in TikTok’s success. If such tools are compromised in a sale, it could disproportionately impact the creator ecosystem.
“If CapCut goes away or if it becomes not free, then it would probably make casual creators less successful, and there would be a smaller pool of creators,” Leung said.
Carlmont student Arya Hosseinzadeh worries about potential disruptions to the app’s performance and culture.
“You will lose a lot more of your valued community,” Hosseinzadeh said. “The app would lose its aspect of what TikTok truly is.”
Michelle Zhang, a student content creator on both TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin, explains the different stakes for casual and professional creators.
“For those full-time content creators, because they pretty much rely on that, it’s kind of a problem,” Zhang said. “But for us, if we don’t use TikTok, then it’s okay. We can just use another kind of social media.”
Despite these concerns, TikTok employee and data scientist Claire Allen* remains optimistic for a seamless shift if the sale goes through. Allen works on analyzing user behavior data to improve the app’s interface and overall user experience.
“We will try everything we can to make the user have a smooth transition. The user should feel almost like nothing,” Allen said. “They can just post as usual. They can trust us to make the transition pretty easy for the users.”
Legislative pressure for a sale originates from the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which intends to “protect the national security of the United States from the threat posed by foreign adversary-controlled applications, such as TikTok and any successor application.” The act detailed that TikTok must be sold to a US-approved company by Jan. 19, 2025. When the platform was not sold, it briefly went dark until Trump signed an executive order that delayed the ban until April. Trump has further extended that deadline three more times to the current December deadline.
However, questions remain about the security and privacy of user data.
“I feel like the American government, once they have a hold of TikTok, they basically have a hold of your everyday life,” Hosseinzadeh said.
According to Allen, the company uses data responsibly.
“We take data very seriously. We don’t overuse data. We don’t try to understand who you are,” Allen said.
Amid the political and corporate negotiations, Zhang questioned the focus of lawmakers, urging them to prioritize more important things.
“Just put your focus on other things rather than TikTok,” Zhang said. “It’s not the biggest problem. Please solve those problems that are really important for people, not this kind of boring stuff.”
*This source’s name has been changed to protect their privacy in accordance with Carlmont Media’s Scot Scoop Anonymous Sourcing Policy.
