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Perhaps the deal will include some as-yet unannounced provisions to address the data issue; absent that, ByteDance would retain a 19.9 percent stake in the app, and would almost certainly continue to use Americans' data just as it does today. More importantly, ByteDance's algorithms — which members of Congress spoke of in near-mystical terms, terrified that (among other things) it might promote the spread of pro-Palestinian videos — would continue to fuel TikTok just as they always have. There is no evidence the Chinese government has used TikTok to spread propaganda, but licensing the app's algorithm to TikTok America would give them an avenue to do so. Mind you, I'm not even saying I found these arguments by members of Congress particularly persuasive. But this was their rationale for passing a law, and it now appears as if they are poised to pretend as if they never did.