If you’d tuned into the Madrid trade talks expecting dry tariff talk and cold diplomatic nods, congratulations — you watched international geopolitics side-step into influencer territory.
The Trump administration says it has reached a framework deal with China to keep TikTok running in the United States, and the internet collectively exhaled (then immediately recorded the reaction for a 15-second edit).
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters after the talks in Madrid that Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping were set to speak in hopes of finalizing the arrangement.
He didn’t lay out the fine print — “it is between two private parties,” he said — but did drop one attention-grabbing line: “the commercial terms have been agreed upon.”
Cue the celebratory dance routine that will no doubt become the official soundtrack for every policy victory from now on!
China’s trade rep Li Chenggang echoed the cautious optimism, saying the two sides reached a “basic framework consensus” that aims to resolve TikTok-related issues “in a cooperative way,” according to Xinhua.
Translation for the TikTok-native generation: the adults in suits have agreed it’s better to keep the app alive than to stage an unprecedented app funeral — at least for now...
So what’s in the mysterious box of agreed commercial terms?
That is still being kept under tighter wraps than a viral lip-sync tutorial.
Oracle has been floated as a likely buyer in whispers and hot takes (and yes, representatives didn’t immediately respond to messages), but there’s been no official buyer announcement.
Instead, negotiators focused on what really matters to national-security hawks: who controls the data and the algorithm.
Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative’s envoy in Madrid, said the team was “very focused on TikTok and making sure that it was a deal that is fair for the Chinese,” while also ensuring it “completely respects U.S. national security concerns.”
That is delicate diplomatic poetry: keep both markets happy and avoid a global scroll-stopping incident.
China’s Wang Jingtao added that there was consensus on authorizing “the use of intellectual property rights such as (TikTok’s) algorithm” and on entrusting a partner with handling U.S. user data and content security.
In plain terms: the algorithm might travel with the app, but someone trusted by the U.S. could be put in charge of the American datacenter keys.
Or as an influencer might put it — TikTok gets a new manager who’ll check your DMs for national-security vibes.
Why the theatrics?
Because the White House has been playing deadline ping-pong with TikTok for months.
Trump has repeatedly extended the app’s U.S. stay — even though legal scholars have questioned how many times he can do that — and the next deadline was reported as Sept. 17.
Trump himself has called TikTok a political tool of sorts: he’s amassed more than 15 million followers there and admitted he has a “warm spot for TikTok.”
If you’re wondering whether the public cares, yes — but not like it used to.
A Pew Research Center survey found about one-third of Americans now support a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023.
Roughly a third oppose a ban and a third are undecided — basically America’s default three-way split, now in app form!
For now, the app stays: Apple, Google and Oracle were persuaded to keep offering TikTok in their stores after receiving assurances the Justice Department wouldn’t seek hefty fines against them during the negotiation limbo.
The result is a temporary truce that keeps dance trends, pet videos and baffling life hacks in the hands of 170 million U.S. users.
But the deal walks a tightrope.
What happens if the eventual sale is to an American company that only licenses the algorithm?
Or if the chain of custody for user data gets so long you need a tracer app to follow it?
Or if Beijing decides that selling a viral content machine is like giving away the secret sauce?
Negotiators still have to iron out who owns what, who watches whom, and whose lawyers get the last word.
In short: TikTok’s future in the U.S. now looks less like a sudden ban and more like a corporate rom-com where a breakup gets patched up, two families agree on wedding terms, and the in-laws keep arguing about who gets the algorithm — but everyone still shows up for the first dance!
Meanwhile, content creators can keep making videos, and policymakers can keep practicing their poker faces!
Time Is Ticking for TikTok: Can the App Dance Past Its Critics?
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