- TikTok has finalized a deal to keep operating in the US
- Original owner ByteDance retains a 19.9% share
- The TikTok algorithm will be retrained for users in the US
It’s been a long time coming, but TikTok has now officially completed the process of spinning off its US operations, which means the video-based social media app will continue to remain accessible to hundreds of millions of users in the United States.
Reports last month suggested a deal might be done in January, and now here we are. Chinese TikTok owner ByteDance has a minority 19.9% share in the new American-owned venture that controls US TikTok, with other investment coming from companies including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX.
In a press release, TikTok said the deal will enable “more than 200 million Americans and 7.5 million businesses to continue to discover, create, and thrive as part of TikTok’s vibrant global community and experience”.
Here are five things to know about the US TikTok deal, now that it’s finalized.
1. This was signed into law in 2024
You’d be forgiven for having forgotten how we got here. For years now, US authorities have been worried about the security and privacy implications associated with having such a successful and widely used Chinese-owned app operating in the US, and under President Biden, a law was signed to force ByteDance to get out of the US or hand over some control.
The main claim leveled at ByteDance – which has been strongly denied – is that it’s collecting and storing a whole host of data on American citizens, in partnership with the Chinese government. The same sort of security concerns have led to devices from DJI – another Chinese company – being banned in the US.
2. TikTok US will use a different algorithm
One of the changes that TikTok users in the United States are now going to see is a different, or at least retrained algorithm: this will be controlled and secured by Oracle using its cloud technology, and protected by the privacy laws of the US. The new algorithm will be trained on US data, according to the agreement.
It’s difficult to say exactly how the typical TikTok feed in the US might change as a result, but we know that the quality of the recommendation algorithm is a key part of TikTok’s success. “One thing’s certain: TikTok in America won’t be the same,” Forrester analyst Kelsey Chickering told the BBC after the news was announced.
3. TikTok content won’t be geo-fenced
While the US TikTok algorithm and user data will be locked away by Oracle in the United States, the content that users see in their feeds isn’t going to be geo-fenced: if you’re in the US, you’re still going to see videos from all across the world, and if you’re outside of the US, you’ll still be able to see content made by creators in America.
That’s good news for content creators and advertisers, but it also means there’s going to be a lot of uncertainty about reach. With the algorithm changes, it may be that going viral – and getting all the benefits that go along with it – is more difficult than it was before, but we’re going to have to wait and see how this plays out over the coming months and years.
4. Data security is a crucial part of the deal
As you would expect, considering what drove this deal to happen, much is being made of the data security protections that now apply to TikTok’s US operations. The new consortium of companies says “comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures” will be put in place, and these measures will be audited by third-party security experts.
That doesn’t mean that TikTok users in the US aren’t going to be tracked and targeted by advertising, though – look at the operations of US companies like Facebook and Google, for example. Again, this is something that will become clearer over time in terms of the details, but it’s one of the key controls that ByteDance has given up.
5. This isn’t just about TikTok
This new TikTok deal comes in the context of ongoing tensions between the US and China. The White House has been slapping hefty tariffs on goods being imported into the United States, and relationships between the two countries aren’t the most cordial at the moment, which is something that this agreement over TikTok might ultimately help with.
President Trump is expected to visit China at some point during 2026, at which point we may well hear more about TikTok and how the two countries can work together. Even if an addictive video-sharing app isn’t top of the priority list when it comes to global deals and diplomacy, a ban for TikTok in the US has now been officially avoided.
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