Letter to President Donald Trump - Tillis, Colleagues Raise Significant Concerns To President Trump Regarding Oracle's TikTok Deal

Letter

The potential status of Oracle as a "trusted technology provider" to ByteDance raises a
number of significant concerns. According to reporting from Reuters,
1 Oracle would merely
assume a management role of TikTok's U.S. data and possibly acquire only a stake in the
company's American operations. This arrangement could violate the requirements set about in
the August 6, 2020 Executive Order on Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok and would do
little to satisfy the range of concerns expressed in that order.
The Executive order is a clear-eyed directive that highlights the data security, corporate
espionage, and censorship hazards posed by TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company
ByteDance. Furthermore, the order prohibits any transactions between U.S. citizens and
ByteDance after a 45-day deadline.
On September 13, 2020, Oracle Corp. confirmed a deal with ByteDance to become a
"trusted technology provider" for TikTok's U.S. operations. As this deal appears to fall short of a
full acquisition, serious questions remain with regard to Oracle's role in TikTok's U.S.
operations, the type of technology Oracle will be providing ByteDance, and the question of what
will happen to the crucial algorithms, which make the application function. In particular, we
remain opposed to any deal that would allow China-based or controlled entities to retain, control
or modify the code or algorithms that operate any U.S.-based version of TikTok. We are
heartened that this deal still requires government approval, and if reports indicating this proposed
deal will retain links to ByteDance or other Chinese-controlled entities, we strongly urge the
Administration to reject such a proposal on national security grounds.
Your Administration has been clear that any proposal must fully protect the data of
American citizens and represents a full break with any Chinese-based corporation, which could
potentially be influenced by the Chinese Communist Party. A partial sale, or trusted partnership
deal, is insufficient in achieving the goals of protecting Americans and U.S. interests from the
severe risks detailed in the Executive order.
Any deal between an American company and ByteDance must ensure that TikTok's U.S.
operations, data, and algorithms are entirely outside the control of ByteDance or any Chinese-

1 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tiktok-trump/trump-says-oracle-close-to-tiktok-deal-as-bytedance-aims-for-majorityownership-idUSKBN26637C
state directed actors, including any entity that can be compelled by Chinese law to turn over or
access U.S. consumer data. As reported, the proposed partnership agreement between Oracle and
TikTok leaves significant unresolved national security issues, and we expect the Administration
to keep Congress fully informed as you evaluate this potential agreement.
We appreciate your attention to this critical matter and look forward to your response.
Sincerely,

Marco Rubio Thom Tillis
U.S. Senator U.S. Senator
Roger F. Wicker Rick Scott
U.S. Senator U.S. Senator
Dan Sullivan John Cornyn
U.S. Senator U.S. Senator