By Daily Caller Staff

Copyright dailycaller

President Donald Trump extended TikTok’s sell-or-ban deadline to Dec. 16 on Tuesday while touting a framework that would keep the app alive under new U.S. investors — and potentially still tethered to a China-built algorithm.

The White House order marks the fourth delay since the law’s Jan. 19 trigger date. Congress’ 2024 statute demands a “qualified divestiture” that cuts any operational ties between U.S. TikTok and ByteDance — “including any cooperation with respect to the operation of a content recommendation algorithm.” If the deal licenses ByteDance’s algorithm back into a U.S. app, it collides with that requirement. (RELATED: ‘Long Live China’: Taylor Lorenz, Other Users Flock To Another Chinese App As TikTok Ban Looms)

“Not only does it not satisfy the national security concerns, I don’t believe it satisfies the law,” former White House tech advisor Lindsay Gorman told The New York Times, referring to any arrangement that leaves ByteDance with algorithmic control.

Trump told reporters, “We have a deal on TikTok,” and said he’ll speak with China’s Xi Jinping on Friday to “confirm everything up.”

Under the emerging deal, TikTok’s U.S. business would become majority-owned by an Oracle-led investor group, with ByteDance’s stake driven below 20%, according to Politico. Names floated in the U.S. block include Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz, with Reuters reporting that KKR and General Atlantic are also in the mix.

Practically, two paths are on the table: licensing ByteDance’s recommendation algorithm to a U.S. app or establishing a U.S. fork with its own algorithm and training. Reuters reported in July that TikTok was already preparing a separate U.S. app with a distinct algorithm and data storage system.

But the hypothetical divestiture only clears the ban if it “precludes the establishment or maintenance of any operational relationship” with formerly affiliated foreign-adversary entities — specifically barring cooperation on a recommendation algorithm, the 2024 law states.

Beijing has signaled any U.S. spinoff could license TikTok’s core algorithm and “entrust” a partner with U.S. data and content security, according to the Beijing-based CGTN News — language that undercuts Congress’ red line and keeps Americans scrolling a feed shaped by code China controls.

The Supreme Court upheld the 2024 law in January, clearing the way for enforcement; Trump has repeatedly paused it while pursuing a negotiated fix.

TikTok’s reach remains massive — the platform counts over 170 million U.S. users, the Supreme Court noted — prompting lawmakers to write a no-loopholes rule on the algorithm.