Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban recently told state leaders to push back against federal control of social media app TikTok, warning, “Don't let the federal government take it. It'll only get worse.”
TikTok Ownership Fight Intensifies
Cuban's remarks during the opening session of the National Governors Association 2025 Summer Meeting in July come as the high-stakes battle over TikTok's U.S. future continues. President Donald Trump has issued three extensions on a law requiring ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, to sell its U.S. assets or face a nationwide ban. The latest deadline is Sept. 17, following Trump's announcement of sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports. He has said he believes Chinese President Xi Jinping will ultimately approve a deal.
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Multiple attempts to structure a sale have stalled. Blackstone (NYSE:BX) recently exited a leading bid led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic. In another effort, entrepreneurs and investors Kevin O'Leary, Frank McCourt, and Alexis Ohanian are working on a U.S.-built alternative without Chinese-owned code, aiming to give users control of their own data.
Cuban Pushes For Parental Oversight
Cuban said his concern is about transparency for parents, not just geopolitics. He described asking TikTok to create a text file listing every video watched by users under 18 so parents could see their children's viewing history. According to Cuban, TikTok refused, claiming it could allow others to reverse-engineer its algorithm. “Whatever we do, we either need to extract that algorithm and say no algorithm, go back to the old way, or require that a text file of everything that any given user under the age of 18 watched is made available to the parents,” he said.
The call for parental oversight mirrors broader concerns from governors about social media's effects on children, including addiction and a decline in critical thinking.
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National Security And Trade Tensions
At the heart of the standoff are national security concerns over whether the Chinese government could access American user data. Beijing denies this, but U.S. lawmakers remain skeptical. Trump's escalating trade measures, including tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods at one point, have complicated the divestment talks.
O'Leary has warned on X in June that without a deal, TikTok could disappear from U.S. app stores after the deadline. Cuban, meanwhile, believes solutions should come from partnerships between states and tech companies, not Washington taking over the platform.
As Cuban put it, letting the federal government control TikTok would only make the situation worse.
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