Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
TikTok evaded a ban and secured its long-term future in the US by announcing a deal on Friday that will see a joint venture take over the US operations of the popular social video app. The deal marks the end of a long battle over the app’s continued presence in the United States, dating back to 2016 President Trump’s first term in office.
TikTok will now be operated in the US by TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, which was established under an executive order from the White House. Released in September 2025. At the helm will be CEO Adam Presser, formerly its chief operating officer, who previously led TikTok’s efforts to ensure the data of the app’s US users remains secure. Shou Chew, CEO of TikTok’s international operations, will serve on the joint venture’s board of directors.
“The mandate of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture is to secure US user data, apps and algorithms through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures,” the company said in a statement. press release. “It will protect the US content ecosystem through strong trust, safety, and content moderation policies while ensuring ongoing accountability through transparency reporting and third-party certifications.”
The joint venture includes three management investors – Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX – each holding a 15% stake. Oracle will also be responsible for protecting US user data and the newly retrained algorithm, which will be specific to the US version of the application.
Both Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden have raised concerns about a potential national security threat posed by TikTok, due to its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance, which will retain a 19.9% stake in the new joint venture. During his two presidential terms, Trump tried to ban TikTok, but he also delayed implementing the ban.
The deal announced Friday arrived moments before the White House’s deadline for TikTok to comply with its September executive order. In a post on his Truth Social site, Trump said he was “very happy to help save TikTok.”
“I just hope that those who use and love TikTok will remember me for a long time to come,” Trump said. Chinese President Xi also thanked Xi for working with the United States and approving the deal. He added: “He could have gone the other way, but he didn’t, and his decision is appreciated.”
How TikTok can change for you
TikTok has more than 200 million users in the United States, and if you’re one of them, the deal announced Friday will allow you to continue using the app without the constant fear of being banned.
You also won’t be isolated from creatives in China or the rest of the world. People in the US will still be able to watch videos from Europe, like last year’s “nothing beats a Jet2 vacation” trend. TikTok users outside the US will still be able to follow their favorite American creators.
In a TikTok Newsroom post, the company addressed interoperability, saying the deal “will provide US users with a global TikTok experience, ensuring US creators can be discovered and companies can operate on a global scale.”
The experience may change in the content recommended to you. Under the terms of the deal, TikTok’s algorithm will be retrained, tested and updated based on US user data. This will have a knock-on effect on what you see on the platform, according to Kelsey Chickering, principal analyst at Forrester.
“TikTok’s power lies in its content graph — an algorithm that learns from thousands of user signals to deliver highly relevant and addictive videos,” Chickering said. “As a joint US project retrains that algorithm on local data, the experience will change — maybe for the better, maybe not. One thing is certain: TikTok in America will never be the same.”
Although interoperability will see TikTok users in the US connected to TikTok users around the world, it seems likely that the focus on US data will lead to a shift away from the global nature of the content currently served by the algorithm. Exactly what this will look like may vary from person to person, and will likely take some time to take effect when the joint venture begins the retraining process.