US-China TikTok Negotiations. Reuters=Yonhap News. 

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to approve the agreement between the U.S. and China regarding the sale of TikTok's U.S. business operations through an executive order soon, U.S. media outlets including The Wall Street Journal reported on September 22 (local time).

According to a senior White House official, President Trump plans to sign an executive order this week stating that the agreement reached by both countries on how TikTok will operate in the U.S. meets legal requirements.

Although TikTok is widely used in the U.S., concerns about the risk of U.S. users' personal data leakage and related security threats have been continuously raised since 2019 due to its parent company being the Chinese firm ByteDance.

Consequently, the Trump administration has been in negotiations with China regarding U.S. companies acquiring a stake in TikTok, reaching a broad agreement through high-level U.S.-China trade talks held in Madrid, Spain, on September 14.

Under the agreement, a new entity will be established to operate TikTok in the U.S. This new entity will have U.S. investors, such as Oracle, holding approximately 80% of the shares, while ByteDance will hold less than 20%.

The new entity will have a board of directors primarily composed of U.S. members, including one director designated by the U.S. government.

To prevent personal data leakage, all data of U.S. users will be stored in a U.S. cloud operated by Oracle.

Furthermore, to alleviate concerns that the Chinese side might control the content recommendation algorithm, plans are in place to build a new version and reorganize the algorithm.

However, users will be able to continue using their existing TikTok application even after the algorithm is reorganized.

Reuters commented on President Trump's plan to sign an executive order approving the TikTok negotiations, stating that it signifies "the conclusion of months of discussions between the U.S. and China" and that "a schedule for an agreement that allows TikTok to continue operating in the U.S. is confirmed."

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