The White House announced Saturday that negotiations over TikTok's future in the United States have been concluded, with only the formal signing of the agreement left.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration of President Donald Trump is "100% confident" the deal has been finalized, adding that it is expected to be signed within days.

Under the arrangement, Washington will hold six of the seven seats on the board that governs TikTok's US business operations. The measure is designed to ensure the app remains available to American users while placing its governance firmly under US oversight.

"TikTok, a short video creation and sharing app launched in 2018 by ByteDance, is a market leader in the short video app segment in China, which continues to gain popularity worldwide," Leavitt noted.

US Security Concerns Drive the Agreement

The deal is the culmination of years of scrutiny of TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance. US officials have long raised concerns that Beijing could exploit the platform for surveillance or political influence.

Those fears were codified in 2024 when Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), forcing ByteDance to either divest TikTok's US operations or face an outright ban.

The Supreme Court later upheld the law in TikTok v. Garland, removing legal obstacles for Washington to push the restructuring.

Read more: Digital sovereignty: How states battle to protect data in AI era

While the deal secures US board control, negotiations have also involved ownership stakes. Reports indicate that a consortium led by Oracle and US private equity investors will acquire roughly 80% of TikTok's US business, leaving ByteDance with a minority stake of under 20%.

Control over TikTok's algorithm and source code remains one of the most contentious issues, with proposals suggesting a licensing arrangement rather than a full transfer, something critics argue still leaves potential vulnerabilities.

China's Reaction and Diplomatic Tensions

Beijing has pushed back against Washington's approach, warning that forced divestment sets a dangerous precedent for global business and violates Chinese export-control rules.

Chinese officials have maintained that any deal must protect intellectual property and comply with their laws.

The standoff comes amid wider US-China tensions over technology, trade, and influence, with the TikTok case now seen as a test of how far the two powers will go in decoupling their digital economies.

If finalized, the TikTok arrangement will mark one of the most sweeping US interventions into a foreign-owned tech platform, setting a template for how apps deemed security risks may be handled in the future.