TikTok has announced a new deal that will allow the popular short-video platform to continue operating in the United States, ending years of uncertainty over its future amid national security concerns raised by Washington.
The agreement follows a prolonged standoff between the US government and TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, which began during Donald Trump’s first term as president. Under US law signed in 2024, ByteDance was required to sell TikTok’s US operations or face a nationwide ban by January 2025. Although enforcement of the law was repeatedly delayed, the app briefly went offline for US users last year during a legal battle between ByteDance and the US government. The new agreement now formalises TikTok’s continued presence in the country. As part of the deal, TikTok’s highly influential content-recommendation algorithm — long described as the app’s “secret sauce” — has been licensed to a newly created company, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. The algorithm will be retrained using only US user data and secured within Oracle’s US-based cloud infrastructure, in line with American data-privacy and cybersecurity requirements. TikTok says the joint venture will operate as an independent entity governed by a seven-member board with a majority of American directors. Former WarnerMedia executive Adam Presser has been appointed chief executive. Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will each hold 15% stakes in the US business, while ByteDance will retain a minority share of 19.9%. US officials and lawmakers had long expressed fears that China could compel ByteDance to hand over data belonging to American users — claims repeatedly denied by both TikTok and its parent company. The deal aims to address those concerns by placing data control and algorithm oversight firmly in US hands. President Donald Trump welcomed the development, writing on social media that he was “so happy to have helped in saving TikTok.” Some analysts suggest the US-only algorithm may function differently from the global version, potentially affecting content recommendations and overall performance, though the full impact remains uncertain.
