“I have determined that the proposed divestiture would allow the millions of Americans who enjoy TikTok every day to continue using it while also protecting national security.” So declared Donald Trump in a Thursday executive order on the long-awaited TikTok deal. Trump’s TikTok flip-flop is an old story at this point, yet his administration continues to praise the app while pushing its sale to US investors.

In a briefing earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described the Trump-designed sale as “great news for the millions of American youth who use TikTok”. “Their data will be safe and secure with this new deal,” said Leavitt. “It’s also great news for all of the small business owners, who have really been able to make a living off of the use of TikTok as well.”

Trump’s executive order mirrored this language, noting, “The TikTok application is a social media platform, centered around short video clips, used by about 170 million Americans. More than simply providing entertainment, many American content creators rely on the TikTok application for their livelihood and many American businesses rely on it for their advertising.”

Not only, the administration claims, does this deal satisfy national security concerns, but it also will benefit kids and small businesses. To be clear, those national security concerns are absolutely real. Concerns that surveillance and censorship powers previously held by China will now be held by ultra-powerful US oligarchs are real too. TikTok is a data-grabbing dopamine machine with enormous influence over Americans of all ages. This concentration of power should simply not exist.

That’s a thornier philosophical question, and even the Supreme Court has struggled to define the proper legal framework for these emerging technological challenges. A US-owned TikTok is preferable to a Chinese-owned TikTok for the simple reason that a hot conflict over Taiwan — or even with a Chinese ally — could mean Beijing’s power over the algorithm becomes a literal matter of life and death. A fog of algorithm-driven disinformation could be perilous, both for public opinion and for decisions made in the heat of the moment. The app also swoops up information that could be used in elections, boosting or suppressing certain content for people likely to vote in one direction or the other.

Make no mistake, these powers will now be in the hands of America’s own politically savvy oligarchs. This is no gift to the public; it’s a bit like China convincing us to buy their version of opium — and in an even more powerful form than what’s available to their own citizens. As of 2024, kids in the US averaged 120 minutes of screen time on the app every day.

Debate is raging about whether social media contributes to negative health outcomes for both kids and adults. That question won’t be resolved here today. But it’s reasonable to assume that most people don’t believe children with developing brains benefit from spending 120 minutes a day watching short-form videos. The quality and safety of that content is hard to control — especially when it comes at the expense of time spent connecting with family and friends who are physically present.

There’s really no need for the Trump administration to lavish TikTok with praise in the interest of completing this deal. These same opportunistic tech barons being brought into the sale by Trump could easily turn against him and the MAGA movement in the future, wielding this same information weapon against him. All the while, the administration is turning a blind eye to the very dangers it claims to regulate.

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Emily Jashinsky is UnHerd‘s Washington correspondent.

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