TikTok has dodged a ban and secured its long-term future within the US by asserting a deal on Friday that can see a three way partnership take over US operations of the favored social video app. The deal marks the conclusion of a protracted battle over the app’s continued presence within the US, which dates again to President Trump’s first term in office.
TikTok within the US will now be run by TikTok USDS Joint Enterprise LLC, which was established by a White Home government order issued in September 2025. At its helm might be CEO Adam Presser, beforehand the pinnacle of operations, who beforehand led TikTok’s efforts to make sure that the info of the app’s US customers was saved safe. Shou Chew, the CEO of TikTok’s worldwide operations, will serve on the three way partnership’s board of administrators.
“TikTok USDS Joint Enterprise’s mandate is to safe US consumer knowledge, apps and the algorithm by complete knowledge privateness and cybersecurity measures,” the corporate stated in a press release. “It’ll safeguard the US content material ecosystem by sturdy belief and security insurance policies and content material moderation whereas making certain steady accountability by transparency reporting and third-party certifications.”
The three way partnership has three managing traders — Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX — which every maintain a 15% stake. Oracle may also be liable for safety of US consumer knowledge and of the freshly retrained algorithm, which might be particular to the US model of the app.
Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden each raised considerations over a possible nationwide safety risk posed by TikTok, because of its Chinese language-owned mum or dad firm ByteDance, which is able to retain a 19.9% stake within the new three way partnership. Throughout each of his presidential phrases, Trump has tried to ban TikTok, but additionally delayed the ban’s implementation.Â
The deal introduced on Friday arrived moments earlier than the deadline set by the White Home for TikTok to conform its September government order. In a submit on his social website Reality Social, Trump stated he was “so completely satisfied to have helped in saving TikTok.”
“I solely hope that lengthy into the longer term I might be remembered by those that use and love TikTok,” stated Trump. He additionally thanked China’s President Xi for working with the US and approving the deal. “He might have gone the opposite manner, however did not, and is appreciated for his choice,” he stated.
How TikTok may change for you
TikTok has greater than 200 million customers within the US, and in the event you’re one among them, the deal introduced on Friday will assist you to proceed utilizing the app with out the continued concern of it being banned.
It additionally will not see you chop off from creators in China, or the remainder of the world. Folks within the US will nonetheless have the ability to watch movies from Europe, equivalent to final yr’s viral “nothing beats a Jet2 vacation” development. TikTok customers exterior of the US will nonetheless have the ability to observe their favourite American creators.
Within the TikTok newsroom submit, the corporate addressed interoperability, saying that the deal would “present US customers with a worldwide TikTok expertise, making certain US creators may be found and companies can function on a worldwide scale.”
The place the expertise may change is within the content material that’s advisable to you. Underneath the phrases of the deal, TikTok’s algorithm might be retrained, examined and up to date primarily based on US consumer knowledge. It will have a knock-on influence on what you see on the platform, in line with Kelsey Chickering, principal analyst at Forrester.
“TikTok’s energy lies in its content material graph — an algorithm that learns from 1000’s of consumer indicators to ship hyper‑related, extremely addictive movies,” stated Chickering. “With a US three way partnership retraining that algorithm on home knowledge, the expertise will change — possibly for the higher, possibly not. One factor’s sure: TikTok in America will not be the identical.”
Despite the interoperability that can see US TikTok customers related to these throughout the globe, it does appear probably that the concentrate on US knowledge will result in a shift away from the worldwide nature of the content material that the algorithm at present serves as much as you. Precisely how it will look could differ from individual to individual, and can probably take a while to return into impact because the three way partnership begins the retraining course of.
