Public sentiment is predominantly skeptical and critical regarding the US-China TikTok deal, with many commenters doubting its sincerity and effectiveness. Concerns center around national security, censorship, and the perceived political motivations behind the agreement. Many express distrust towards both the US and Chinese governments, viewing the deal as insufficient to address real issues, while frustration exists over the lack of transparency.

US Government

Trump Administration

Chinese Government

&gt; Scott Bessent said the deal was coming

LOL. 

&gt; Li Chenggang, the top Chinese trade negotiator, confirmed later on Monday that two sides had reached a basic framework consensus on resolving issues related to TikTok through cooperation, reducing investment barriers and promoting trade

oh, yeah, definitely the two sides are absolutely on the same page with a firm, detailed agreement and structure that will preserve TikTok and satisfy US desires to own/control/regulate it.

sickofthisshit

Some key details:

&gt;Speaking after emerging from negotiations with Chinese officials, Scott Bessent said the deal was coming but declined to reveal the commercial terms.
&gt;
&gt;“We have a framework for a TikTok deal,” the treasury secretary told reporters after coming out of high-level talks in Madrid. “We’re not going to talk about the commercial terms of the deal. It’s between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon.” Bessent added that the Chinese team had made “aggressive asks” during negotiations, but didn’t explain what they were.
&gt;
&gt;Li Chenggang, the top Chinese trade negotiator, confirmed later on Monday that two sides had reached a basic framework consensus on resolving issues related to TikTok through cooperation, reducing investment barriers and promoting trade. Li said friction between the two economic giants was normal, but warned Washington against continued “suppression” of Chinese companies.
&gt;
&gt;“We would like to stress that the outcomes of the trade and economic consultations are hard won, and the US side should not, on the one hand, ask China to accommodate its concerns, whilst at the same time continue to suppress Chinese companies,” Li said in Madrid.
&gt;
&gt;The framework agreement is a breakthrough in the long-running dispute over TikTok’s ownership, which has raised national security concerns in Washington over the app’s Chinese parent company ByteDance. In April 2024, Joe Biden signed legislation that gave ByteDance nine months to sell the platform to a US-approved buyer or face a total ban – a deadline that Donald Trump has repeatedly extended.
&gt;
&gt;...
&gt;
&gt;Washington’s security concerns center on fears that Beijing could manipulate the massively popular platform to spy on Americans or influence public opinion. Christopher Wray, the former FBI director, warned senators that China’s national security laws could compel ByteDance to hand over user data or suppress content, and the department of justice last year said TikTok had gathered the sensitive data of American users based off gun control, abortion and religion through its use of Lark, a workplace communication platform similar to Slack or Microsoft Teams, according to court documents.
&gt;
&gt;...
&gt;
&gt;Bessent said final details would be settled when Trump speaks with Xi Jinping, China’s president, on Friday. Trump hinted that the deal was in the making while all sides were still at the table, posting on Truth Social that “A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much want to save. They will be very happy!”
&gt;
&gt;Greer confirmed that the agreement was now awaiting approval from both leaders.

With this administration, recent history shows that a deal in principle is anything but a done deal. Given this uncertainty along with other recent events involving foreign-headquartered tech companies, it's difficult to see how any company would view investing in the US as a safe bet for the foreseeable future.

Hrmbee

“We don’t want the Chinese to spy on Americans. We prefer to do it ourselves.”

5aur1an

Sidwill

Hopefully everyone will abandon it and move to a clone of the site.

samjohnson2222

It is a national threat, consider there is a very different nation in their minds.

popofthedead

It's still quite funny to me that people are sitting there with a straight face, pretending that the app is some sort of surveillance network &amp; national security threat.

Professor0fLogic

Can you imagine if people in office spent this much time hand wringing about improving the outcomes of our healthcare system? ...instead of which capitalists own a social media app?

Ecredes

So we spend billions for this, then China just comes out with Bik Bok and we start over again.

Quigleythegreat

Absolutely knew this was going to happen

US gets the TikTok name which is about the same worth as Melanoma’s stablecoin and China rebrands the algorithm and  transitions the user base to ‘Happy Fun Smile Time’

celtic1888

&gt;Under the current framework—which could change—TikTok's board would become "American-dominated," sources further confirmed, * including "one member designated by the US government."*


This coming on the heels of some weird, government mandate for diverse viewpoints on Paramount networks news programming. 


Y'all know what's coming, right?

Oldass_Millennial

livingwellish

OiMyTuckus

A sweetheart deal for favored interests of the Trump administration. It was always about money.

rapidcreek409

It will clips of Gravy Seals and plastic Karens bitching about everything because the world has been unfair. Crap Social.

Bubbaganewsh

JustDyslexic

billionaires can fuck right off.

tiktok died when they "banned" it and then fake made it available again with christofascists ads on it.

way to kill a cash cow, idiots.

skyfishgoo

I called this shit months ago, the company was never going to give its algorithm to the US. they’d rather just lose money in the region

flirtmcdudes

fajadada

So basically the American TikTok will be enshitified.

Goldarr85

So…they get nothing. What are the odds it will even keep the name? My bet is the buyer will suck up to Trump with whatever they call it. TrumpTok. TruthTok. EpsteinKok. 

LoserBroadside

LMAO they have to make their own app from scratch?!

So they've effectively just bought a license to the TikTok brand name... holy shit.

DonutsMcKenzie

silverport

Trump will flub this, just like everything else he touches. They'll make TokTik or some version of basically the same thing back in China and just let everyone log in using their TikTok credentials and we'll carry on.

Own_Event_4363

so tiktok is going to be more trash? just make a competitor app like there was vine in America, but that was bought out and destroyed. Yeah they don't wanna compete. They just wanna make money and force us\* to listen to what they have to say.

Forward_Doughnut324

epitrochoidhappiness

Without the algorithm is pretty much a useless deal

And creating a new app is just a loss for the USA

But it's a "Trump Deal" so it all makes sense

_legna_

infamous_merkin

Evening_Mess_2721

I called this back when Tiktok went dark and blamed the "ban".


Actually, this sounds even stupider than what I predicted: I assumed Tiktok would happily sell the brand and/ot userbase but keep the algorithm and backend for themselves.

AKluthe

jimmythegeek1

Didn't they try banning tiktok before and they folded after only a few hours?  This isn't banning tiktok but taking it over so that the us companies own the US version of it and can manipulate US citizens using the algorithm, which is exactly what they are accusing china of doing.

thedreaming2017

FUKING DISGUSTING!  USA VERSION HIDES TRUTH AND TRANSPARENCY WORLDWIDE!!!

Worldly-Necessary387

And its Oracle making it probably where they bought it lol the new app will just crash constantly it’s what Oracle does best

mrmacne

tinacat933

hahahahahahaha, fuck tiktok and it's idiots on there

REiiGN

Good. It would be stupid for tiktok to give away their algorithm to this stupid extortion.

Hikki77

Lmao not only is that a hilariously bad deal, but it also completely ignores the bill passed by congress

InfamousZebra69

Trump is trying to get one of his buddies to bail him out by buying the shell of tik tok.  Going to be funny when it falls through because neither side will actually agree to terms.

AdhesivenessFun2060

China took their ball and went home, the algorithm is the app.

CottonCitySlim

The US TikTok is about to become TikTok the Fox "News" edition.

Exyide

I already had zero intentions of ever setting up a TikTok account.  This definitely won’t convince to change my mind.  Trump and his merry band of morons should stick to “Truth” Social.

tingulz

As a Chinese, I'm baffled: Do Americans really think China would hand over its algorithms to the U.S.?

Besides, are there really so many American companies incapable of developing algorithms as effective as TikTok's? Are your internet companies just sitting around doing nothing?

bjran8888

maty360414

Sad to say at this point, but I actually trust China more than the Trump Administration. Never in a million years would I have thought that possible. 

A US version of TicToK would get Peter Theil's Planitir involved and Pam Bondi's Free Speech Brigade would be banging on your door if you posted anything they found "mean".

SmoothJazziz1

My own algorithm with black jack and hookers

Smkingbowls

RecklessBravado

badpeoria

"We've got tik tok at home" -America probably 

my_name_is_jody

So basically the US is going to use AI to generate AI?

jcanuc2

TLDR? So the US will own the majority of TikTok as a whole or just the US TikTok app?

No_Penalty3029

I, for one, will not be migrating to this new app 

whiteferrari-

Gustavo_Polinski

It is going to fail without an algorithm.  No one likes starting over. 

Lettuce_bee_free_end

TheFoxsWeddingTarot

Yeah, it's much better to just drop the ban hammer rather than Xitty company creates the same app rebranded, making you go back to square one with foreign-controlled social media that is clearly being used for terrorism promotion and pro-Xitty party propaganda.

unlimitedcode99

So what do we need a deal for? Just make a copy app. Ignore any IP, since China does.

the_red_scimitar

The Ellisons will soon be one of the most hated families in America.

PolyrythmicSynthJaz

The entire point of this ban was Congrss claimed that TikTok was a proxy for the Chinese government and was using it's algorithm to push proganada to Americans thus need to be banned.

Yet this framework will let TikTok maintain it's "[Chinese characteristics](https://www.axios.com/2025/09/15/tiktok-ban-sale-china-deal-bessent)" and very likely it's algorithm which goes against the entire purpose of this ban in the first place.

TheRedCr0w

According to Axios "TikTok will retain "Chinese characteristics" after sale, Bessent says",

The U.S. is going to guarantee certain "Chinese characteristics" of the app remain, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told multiple news outlets on Monday, even though Congress banned TikTok last year in a rare show of bipartisanship over fears of Chinese influence over American kids.

Reuters quoted Bessent as saying the commercial side of the deal will preserve the app's "Chinese characteristics," though he did not elaborate. "They're interested in Chinese characteristics of the app, which they think are soft power," Bessent reportedly said. "We don't care about Chinese characteristics. We care about national security."

So in the end after three extensions, letters of immunity sent to tech companies and claims of expansive powers to do it, it will end with them keeping certain things as part of the deal. I wonder if it will be a bad deal like the others this administration made. It probably will be.

John3262005

I would be quite curious to see what the broader deal looks like in terms of how it affects trade barriers.

Also, whether or not it’ll be run by MAGA interests with Trump seemingly taking a slice in many high profile deals.

Loud-Chemistry-5056

Really terrified at the censorship of dissenting voices this will bring

UmpireKey92



Mild (?) take: TikTok is poison and should not be allowed to operate, especially not with the CCP-controlled algorithm in place. We're going to be dealing with the consequences of this for decades to come.

Left_Tie1390

I prefer this to outright banning Tiktok, although part of me would still have laughed at the utter meltdown that would have followed a tiktok ban. 

I'm also still going to rag on it and call it the Chinese spyware app.

ASDMPSN

Good job Joe Biden for signing the "give Larry Ellison tiktok" bill

Lighthouse_seek

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I'm skeptical that China would agree to divest of TikTok and it's algorithm which they can use to their advantage to push pro-China/anti-American content. This seems like another one of Trump's "deals" where he claims victory for little to nothing in return.

ChrisF1987

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Rbtmd78

Tik-Tok is going to be a right wing hellscape.

BigDaddyBain

more frameworks, which mean nothing really besides you've agreed to terms to begin talking about a deal...that's all he's accomplished in any of these "trade deals"

faffc260

Oh, oh, I've heard this one before! "Framework" = "concepts of a plan".

jkbuilder88

How much will go into Trump's pockets? It certainly won't be $0!

MentokGL

grasshopper239

So they agreed to a “framework” of a deal. No indication that any details have been discussed, such as who owns the code &amp; algorithm, how it will continue to work with the rest of the global platform, how much of the internals China is actually willing to expose, etc.

Unless I missed it.

Clearing_Fog

Let’s say Trump makes some kind of deal that enriches himself … isn’t TikTok still legally banned by congress?

Moth-Lands

ITS TACOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TUUUUUUEEESSSSDAAAY YALL!

NasoLittle

An agreement between the US and China has been reached to allow TikTok to operate in the United States, addressing national security concerns.

US-China TikTok Deal

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