Inside the TikTok deal: the politics of the algorithm
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
TikTok’s feed is famous for knowing users better than they know themselves. Now, a US deal could put that power in the hands of Trump allies and tech giants. What might change for the 170 million Americans on the app – and what does this fight reveal about control of speech and data?
In this episode:
- Robert Rogowsky, Professor of Trade and Economic Diplomacy at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Tamara Khandaker, Sarí el-Khalili, and Chloe K. Li, with Manny Panaretos, Melanie Marich, Marcos Bartolomé, Kisaa Zehra, Farhan Rafid, and our guest host, Kevin Hirten. It was edited by Kylene Kiang.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad Al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is the Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, what a U.S. controlled TikTok could look like. |
| 0:15.0 | U.S. and Chinese officials say they're now on the cusp of a deal. |
| 0:19.0 | The agreement involves the app being transferred |
| 0:21.2 | from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, |
| 0:23.8 | to U.S. controlled ownership. |
| 0:26.5 | With the algorithm shifting into American hands, |
| 0:29.5 | what changes and what doesn't for millions of users? |
| 0:35.5 | I'm Kevin Horton, and this is The Take. |
| 0:45.9 | Before we continue with today's show, if you're watching us on YouTube or Spotify, please leave us a comment. |
| 0:51.7 | Tell us what you think about this episode and what stories you'd like us to do next. |
| 0:56.3 | Leave us a review, telling us where you're listening from, and you might as well give us a five-star rating on your favorite podcast app. |
| 1:07.7 | My name is Robert Rogowski. I'm a professor of trade and economic diplomacy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. I also teach as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and I am speaking to you from Maryland in the United States. |
| 1:25.9 | All right. Well, as Vermonter, I'm always excited to have somebody from Middlebury on the show. |
| 1:31.8 | So, Robert, welcome to the take. Before we dive into the intricacies of the deal, why don't we start |
| 1:38.8 | by addressing what makes TikTok so valuable in the first place, and that is its famous algorithm. |
| 1:45.3 | People often say that it knows them better than they know themselves, and I know you're a |
| 1:49.7 | TikTok user, but for someone who is not, how would you explain the power of this algorithm? |
| 1:56.0 | Well, I think the power of the algorithm is its ability to take information from each individual |
| 2:06.3 | viewer of TikTok and understand what that viewer likes to see, what attracts that viewer. |
| 2:17.1 | It pays attention to how long you are on certain kinds of videos, |
| 2:22.3 | and it measures the time of your attention span, |
... |
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