US Senator Urges Trump To Explain TikTok's Divestment Plan

Senator Ed Markey assesses that the White House has not provided a clear answer (photo: x @EdMarkey)

JAKARTA - A Democratic senator on Monday, November 24 asked the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to provide a detailed explanation of the plan to sell the majority of TikTok assets in the US by its Chinese owner, ByteDance.

Trump previously signed an executive order on September 25 stating that plans to sell TikTok operations in the US to a consortium of American and global investors have met national security requirements by law in 2024.

He gave 120 days to complete the transaction and postponed the ban on the app until January 20, unless ByteDance sold it. TikTok is currently used by about 170 million Americans.

However, Senator Ed Markey assessed that the White House had not provided a clear answer and did not follow the mandate of the 2024 law.

The extension of the divestment deadline that has been repeatedly carried out illegally and the vague statements regarding this deal raise a serious question as to whether you are really successful in securing an agreement that can keep TikTok operating while overcoming national security concerns over ByteDance's ownership, Markey wrote in a letter to Trump.

He added that the 'Congress and the American people need to understand the terms and status of the so-called agreement.'

The White House has yet to comment on the criticism.

In its executive order, Trump said the TikTok algorithm would be retrained and supervised by US corporate security partners, and its operations were under the control of the new joint venture company. But Markey questioned whether China had agreed to the deal, even though the US government said so.

"If TikTok AS licenses algorithms from ByteDance and retrains, is this a one-time transfer of source codes, or should it be updated regularly?" asked Markey. Am the algorithm change by ByteDance will affect the licensed algorithm to US TikTok?

In accordance with the 2024 law, ByteDance will hold less than 20% ownership on US TikTok.

Meanwhile, in October 2025, US House of Representatives member John Moolenaar, chairman of the House of Representatives Selection Committee on Chinese Affairs from the Republican Party, said that licensing agreements for the use of the TikTok algorithm as part of the process of selling TikTok assets in the US could lead to serious concern.