An exclusive excerpt from Every Screen On The Planet reveals how the social media app’s powerful recommendation engine was shaped by a bunch of ordinary, twentysomething curators—including a guy named Jorge.

On Threads, the algorithm-configuration feature is tied to Instagram’s larger efforts to revamp its main app to emphasize Reels and recommendations. Instagram announced Wednesday that it will soon allow users to more directly control the app’s algorithm by choosing which topics they’d like to see more or less of in their feeds.

With a change of ownership in the works, the fate of TikTok’s algorithm – the secret sauce of its success – is up in the air. Whatever happens, changes to the video sharing app are coming.

In the United States, TikTok will be operated by a board of directors with national security and cybersecurity credentials, one of the senior officials said. ByteDance will choose one director on the seven-member board, and that person will be excluded from TikTok’s security committee.

TikTok's algorithm is the "secret sauce" behind the app's success, experts say. U.S.-China talks over the app's ownership must resolve who controls the technology.

With the Ellisons (Oracle) and Murdochs (Fox) in the mix, Trump allies are poised to take at least partial control over the app’s recommendation engine.

A TikTok deal could be announced this week, according to White House officials. New details have emerged that suggest several new and old investors, including Oracle and private-equity firm Silver Lake, will play prominent roles in the deal. President Donald Trump extended the deadline for the deal to be completed to December 16.

Algorithms, which are just sets of instructions expressed in code, are harder to restrict than physical goods. But governments, including the U.S., have long tried to prevent their export.

Tech giant Oracle will spearhead a new joint venture being cobbled together to take over the U.S. oversight of the algorithm underlying TikTok.