OPINION: The TikTok deal and Africa’s mobile moment

The United States' restructured deal over TikTok is not just about one app or one country. It is about infrastructure, data, and influence. Power shifts from Beijing to a handful of American billionaires.

The flag changes, but the logic of surveillance and control stays the same. National security is real — but it is fast becoming a new gatekeeper of the mobile world.

For Africa — Kenya included — where mobile already underpins daily life, this deal matters. It shakes the foundations of app access, developer opportunity, telco roles, and data sovereignty. The mobile ecosystem in Africa will feel the ripples.

The Billionaire Board

“The richest man in the world owns X. The second richest will own TikTok,” said former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich. He was not simply talking about money. He was pointing to something deeper than wealth inequality — the way algorithmic reach has become the new currency of influence.

Whoever controls the algorithm controls the conversation. In the context of the TikTok deal, that means deciding how hundreds of millions of people — especially young ones — see and share content through their phones.

One might argue that the deal does not so much insulate the app from foreign interference as it transfers control to a familiar circle of insiders. The move may calm lawmakers, but it does not guarantee transparency or neutrality.

The names read like a map of power: Larry Ellison (Oracle), Rupert Murdoch, Michael Dell, and their circles. Ellison’s company runs the digital backbones of governments. Murdoch’s media empire spans continents.

In Africa, where mobile platforms fuel the creator economy, a shift in global ownership upstream can decide who gets seen — and who gets silenced.

The Algorithm and the Illusion of Safety

U.S. officials say the deal will prevent foreign manipulation. Their concern is not fiction. TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, has faced documented allegations of American data access by Chinese authorities. Investigations found censorship of sensitive topics like Tibet and Tiananmen. These are national security issues — real, not rhetorical. Any nation has the right to defend its citizens from external data exploitation.

But the new deal doesn’t remove risks — it relocates them. Replacing Beijing’s reach with a domestic boardroom doesn’t make the system transparent; it only changes who steers it. To “franchise” the algorithm — recreating it under new ownership — is to re-license the power to shape perception. If the U.S. version aligns with political moods, the threat shifts from Chinese propaganda to domestic bias.

For Africa, where algorithmic governance is still young, this moment warns of imported dependencies — rules, data models, and standards defined elsewhere.

Surveillance, Soft Power, and the Global South

China’s role in global data collection triggered the U.S. move. But America’s response risks repeating the same model under a new flag. Ellison has ties to Trump, Israel’s Netanyahu, and defense donors. Oracle’s work with law enforcement and intelligence agencies suggests TikTok’s U.S. infrastructure could merge with broader systems of monitoring. 

Technology carries politics. National security can be both shield and sword — necessary for defense, dangerous for democracy. Kenya and other African states face the same dilemma: balancing data protection with digital sovereignty.

The Communications Authority of Kenya and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner have started that work. But as a recent Strathmore University study notes, “With over 10 million Kenyan TikTok users, grey zones around governance and content moderation persist.”

The global struggle over TikTok shows that the contest for digital power is not local. It is the same conversation, from Washington to Nairobi: who sets the terms of connection, who controls the algorithm, and who profits from attention itself.

What It Means for Africa’s Mobile Ecosystem

Telcos, app developers, and advertisers in Kenya and across Africa are watching. For advertisers: data once shared across open ad-tech pipes may now sit inside Oracle’s closed cloud. African firms risk higher costs to reach global users.

For messaging and social platforms: the precedent stands — governments can demand ownership changes in private apps. Encryption, interoperability, and cross-border data flows may become bargaining chips.

For developers and creators: fragmentation looms. A world of “sovereign algorithms” — different code for each flag — makes innovation harder, costlier.

For telcos: networks carry traffic but lose value. If platforms become tools of surveillance or propaganda, operators risk being drawn into systems they cannot control.

Kenya’s digital economy cannot afford to see platforms politicized or partitioned. Any ban or restriction on TikTok would significantly impact economic activities and livelihoods connected to mobile content creation. Yet unregulated access leaves users exposed to foreign or private interests.

MEF believes regulation must be firm yet neutral. National security is real — every country must guard its networks and citizens — but that defense must not become a pretext for monopoly power or political capture. The mobile ecosystem needs rules that protect users, enable innovation, and preserve competition — not deals made in campaign season.

The digital revolution began with connection — one device linking to another, one user to the world. It promised openness, not obedience. In scenarios like the TikTok U.S.–China arrangement, the next phase may be shaped by a small group of super-rich individuals whose interests diverge from those of the broader public. Changing the owner does not change the algorithm’s power. It only changes who it serves.

The author, Dario Betti, is the CEO of MEF (Mobile Ecosystem Forum), a global trade body established in 2000 and headquartered in the UK with members across the world.