Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Monday that Washington and Beijing had established a “framework for a TikTok deal,” just days before an impending deadline that could have led to a ban on the popular social media platform in the United States.

Bessent provided limited information regarding the agreement. Concerning a critical issue about the control of TikTok’s algorithm, which determines what content users view on the app, he remarked, “We’re not going to discuss the commercial teams of the deal. It’s between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon.”

He did not indicate which parties he was referring to.

“We were very focused on TikTok and ensuring that the deal was equitable for the Chinese while fully addressing U.S. national security concerns, and that’s what we accomplished,” Bessent stated. He emphasized that the goal was to “ensure the Chinese have a fair investment environment in the United States, but with U.S. national security always being the priority.”

Bessent made these remarks from Madrid, where he was meeting with a Chinese delegation to address ongoing trade tensions between the two nations. Moments before his comments, China disclosed that it had identified computer chip giant Nvidia as violating its anti-trust laws concerning a deal made in 2020.

His statement followed President Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social, confirming that an agreement had been reached concerning a “company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save.”

Trump added that he would be speaking to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.

The White House and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

TikTok has been in legal uncertainty due to a U.S. law threatening a ban unless the company was sold to a non-Chinese buyer. Nevertheless, it has continued its operations despite a 2024 law, which the Supreme Court upheld, mandating its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the social media platform to a U.S.-based company or face severe penalties to continue U.S. operations. The law received bipartisan support in Congress upon passing, driven by concerns about privacy and national security for its over 170 million U.S.-based users.

The app was briefly shuttered in the U.S. just days before Trump’s inauguration — but the president promised not to impose penalties on TikTok after he was sworn in, while ByteDance worked to find a U.S.-based buyer.

Upon coming into office, he made that promise official with an executive order that he has since extended several times, most recently in June. The most recent extension is slated to expire Wednesday.

As the extensions have piled up, so have potential U.S.-based bidders for the app. They included, at various points, venture capital group Andreessen Horowitz, Amazon, asset management firm Blackstone and tech giant Oracle, whose co-founder, Larry Ellison, is a close Trump ally.

One of TikTok’s current U.S. investors, Jeffrey Yass, spent millions in 2024 on lobbying to protect the app from being shut down. At 7%, Yass’s share of TikTok was worth as much as $21 billion last year.

In July, NBC News reported Yass had donated $16 million to Trump’s duper PAC, sending MAGA Inc. $1 million days before Trump’s inauguration and another $15 million in early March.

Trump moved to ban TikTok in the U.S. during his first term, but has spoken about it favorably in his second term, crediting the platform with helping him win over key groups of young voters in the 2024 presidential election.

On Friday, during an interview on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” the president spoke about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at an event Wednesday.

“A Republican never wins youth, but I won youth. I will tell you, TikTok helped me, but [Kirk] helped me with TikTok, but he helped me with youth,” Trump said.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last week also spoke about the possible ban of the platform, highlighting the president’s positive feelings toward the platform while also weighing his concerns.

“The president likes TikTok. You know, he did well communicating with young people through TikTok. So he’s partial to it,” Lutnick told CNBC.

“But unless it’s owned by Americans, and the algorithm is controlled by Americans — because, you know, eventually that app in your phone, everything with China has a call daddy in it,” Lutnick said. “So the president knows, if we’re going to have TikTok here, that’s got to go.”

He added, “If the president can get that, he’s going to keep TikTok. If you can’t, it’s going to go dark.”