As the Trump administration approaches the end of its third legally dubious extension of the TikTok sale-or-ban law, the Chinese Communist Party is making one thing very clear: the app’s For You algorithm, developed by the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, will not be sold anytime soon.
That’s because last time ByteDance tried to sell the algorithm — under threat of a TikTok ban during President Trump’s first term — the Chinese government changed its export rules at the last minute to prevent the company from making the sale.
Today, the CCP reiterated its stance on a TikTok sale in an editorial in the state-owned media outlet China Daily. The editorial began by applauding the Trump White House for creating an official TikTok Account — and gloating at the inconsistency between the White House’s actions and Congress’s ban of TikTok for national security reasons last year. “TikTok’s appeal and effectiveness as a communication channel has not been lost on even the White House,” it opened. “That the White House launched its own account on the app less than one month before the third extended deadline expires only serves to expose the hypocrisy of the U.S. side’s alleged ‘security’ charges against TikTok.”
Then, the editorial went on to remind readers that ByteDance, as a Chinese company, “must comply with Chinese laws and regulations,” and that Chinese law “prohibits the export of core technologies such as short video algorithms, drawing a red line for the TikTok transaction.” The editorial expressed hope that Trump would indefinitely extend his non-enforcement of the binding U.S. law that requires TikTok to be sold to a non-Chinese company or banned in the U.S.
The Chinese government’s stance does not necessarily mean that Trump and ByteDance will abandon efforts to make some kind of a deal. But it does mean that sale of the For You algorithm — which is core to TikTok’s function and appeal — won’t be on the table.
TikTok has been planning for this eventuality. In May, Reuters reported that the company was working on creating a U.S.-only clone of the For You algorithm, which could be used in a potential separation of U.S. TikTok from the existing app. (It is unclear whether the Chinese government would take issue with TikTok launching a U.S. only algorithm, if that algorithm is based in whole or in part on the Chinese asset whose sale the CCP has barred.) In July, The Information reported that the company was working on a separate U.S. TikTok app, to be launched in early September, before Trump’s impending September 17 deadline.
If TikTok does proceed with launching a U.S.-only app, it will have to be powered by an algorithm of some kind. The Chinese government is suggesting that algorithm can’t be ByteDance’s trademark For You Page. The status of a clone algorithm is still up in the air, both technologically and legally. So TikTok may be — at least in the short-to-medium term — somewhat stuck.
In the meantime, Trump may do what he has done before and grant yet another extension, allowing the company to continue operating in the U.S. in violation of binding U.S. law. But Trump’s own Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, has been singing a different tune, saying that TikTok will go dark in September unless the Chinese government approves a sale.
Trump and the Chinese government might also agree to a non-sale sale: an agreement that allows functional Chinese control over TikTok to continue, but gives Trump the cosmetic win of closing a deal of some kind. Such a deal would likely violate the law that Congress passed last year — but the burden would fall on Congress and the courts to require compliance.
As the third extension moves toward expiration, one of two things seems certain: either Trump will continue to flout the law and allow TikTok to remain under Chinese control, or TikTok will change — somewhat dramatically — because the tech that has defined it will be out of reach.