Washington (AFP)

Three days before the deadline that will seal the fate of TikTok in the United States, negotiators were still struggling Thursday to find a new ownership structure for the popular Chinese video app that is acceptable to both Beijing and Washington.

A deal appeared to be taking shape that would allow Silicon Valley-based Oracle to be TikTok's U.S. technology partner in order to allay Washington's fears that the platform could be used for spying on the account. from China.

But while the name of this potential partner was formalized on Monday by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the details of the agreement remained unclear on Thursday.

Some media have mentioned a minority stake (up to 20%, according to CNBC) by Oracle, specializing in software and services for businesses.

The Chinese parent company, ByteDance would retain a majority stake.

A U.S. government national security committee (Cfius) was still reviewing Oracle's offer on Thursday as Republican lawmakers warned of greenlighting a deal that would leave the company under Chinese control.

Donald Trump said he was undecided on Wednesday, waiting to learn more about the national security implications of any new structure for the hugely popular teen short video app with around 100 million users in the United States and up to a billion in the world.

- Irreconcilable?

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Some analysts point to the irreconcilable side of the matter: finding an agreement that allays the two countries' concerns over security, algorithms and other key technologies used by TikTok.

"It looks like a zero-sum game where either China or the United States gets the benefits of intellectual property and security, and there is no way for both sides to share that," he said. commented Betsy Cooper, director of the Tech Policy Hub at the Aspen Institute.

According to the former Homeland Security official, the deal with Oracle hosting data as a minority shareholder "does not appear to resolve the security concerns" raised by the White House host and other US officials.

James Lewis, who heads technology policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, believes that Oracle could still gain approval for its deal at presumably price changes.

“Selling will be easier for Oracle if ByteDance becomes a minority owner,” he says.

Six U.S. Republican Senators wrote to Donald Trump this week.

They write that "any deal between a US company and ByteDance must ensure that TikTok's US operations, data and algorithms are completely beyond the control of ByteDance or any Chinese state-run actor, including any entity that may fall. under Chinese law requiring them to access US consumer data. "

Donald Trump has threatened to ban TikTok in the United States if no deal is reached by Sunday.

This affair is a new illustration of the technological battle being played out between the two greatest economic powers in the world.

- Possible veto from Beijing -

Thus, notes Richard Windsor, independent technology analyst and author of the Radio Free Mobile blog, any TikTok agreement that would solve American security problems risks encountering a veto from Beijing.

"The fact that Oracle can have access to TikTok's algorithms and source code greatly increases the chances of the deal being approved by the US administration. On the other hand, it greatly increases the risk that it will be blocked by China." , he said.

At the same time, time is running out and "ByteDance needs this situation to be resolved quickly", he emphasizes, especially since there is no lack of innovative applications to replace TikTok if ByteDance fails to prevent a ban in the United States.

The TikTok saga has seen several twists and turns so far, with Microsoft initially seen as the contender before its offer was rejected last weekend.

Walmart, which worked with Microsoft, said in a statement on Sunday that it continued "to be interested in an investment in TikTok" and that it was continuing discussions with ByteDance management and other interested parties.

For their part, the Chinese authorities have indicated that they are opposed to a sale by ByteDance of the algorithms used by TikTok, which are believed to hold a large part of the platform's value.

Donald Trump had demanded that a significant portion of the sale go to the US Treasury before indicating on Wednesday that he had been informed that this was not possible.

© 2020 AFP