Nikolas Kokovlis\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n After years of<\/span> bipartisan warnings about TikTok\u2019s potential national security risks, users may soon confront a different kind of threat, perhaps even worse: an algorithm \u201ccontrolled by America.\u201d<\/p>\n White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the detail on Saturday, a key aspect of the emerging agreement announced by the Trump administration last week between the United States and China. The deal could finally settle TikTok\u2019s fate in the US following months of uncertainty with a brief ban, reversal by the Trump<\/a> administration, and shifting, self-imposed deadlines for an agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be seven seats on the board that controls the app in the US, and six of those seats will be Americans,\u201d Leavitt told Fox News. \u201cThe data and privacy will be led by one of America\u2019s greatest tech companies, Oracle, and the algorithm will also be controlled by America.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear what exactly a US-controlled algorithm will involve. Right-wing conspiracy theories? Charlie Kirk memorials? Coupons for MAGA swag? Nor did Leavitt specify which American individuals would be involved in determining an algorithm. We also have little details on how Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, a Trump loyalist, intends to approach the responsibility for managing TikTok\u2019s data and security while the Trump administration weaponizes everything from voting data<\/a> to confidential Social Security records<\/a>. Similarly, it\u2019s important to note that a deal between the US and China hasn\u2019t actually been finalized, regardless of the Trump administration\u2019s celebratory mood and insistence that one will be signed \u201cin the coming days.\u201d (China appears far more restrained<\/a> on the impending deal.) But should TikTok go the way of Truth Social, where janky ads are interlaced with state media-like announcements, or other billionaire takeovers that have transformed popular social media platforms into antisemitic AI hellholes<\/a>, the outlook for TikTok is grim. It portends the destruction of another public square in Trump\u2019s quest to ruin the culture for us all.<\/p>\n Of course, there\u2019s always the option of ditching the machines and resisting whatever bad place an algorithm \u201ccontrolled by America\u201d promises to be. We might even get our attention spans back.<\/p>\n<\/article><\/div>\n
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