TikTok is officially under new ownership in the US, and that could spell big changes for the video-sharing app. On January 22nd, ByteDance – TikTok’s Chinese parent company — and a group of investors closed a $14 billion deal to spin off the platform’s US operations, introducing a new slate of American executives.
The Silver Lake investment firm, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and the cloud giant Oracle will each have 15 percent stakes in the new TikTok US Data Security (USDS) Joint Venture LLC. ByteDance will still hold a 19.9 percent stake in the company, in line with the divest-or-ban law that went into effect last year — though the deal was pushed through with help from President Donald Trump in persistent disregard of the law.
The most visible change so far has been a new terms of service, which is popping up for US-based users hopping onto TikTok. The new terms have some people worried, but some of the sections raising concerns aren’t actually new.
Here’s how the joint venture will impact the app and your feed.
Who is in charge of TikTok now?
Adam Presser, TikTok’s former global head of operations and trust and safety, will serve as the CEO of the US-based company, while Will Farrell, who previously worked as the head of security and privacy for TikTok’s US arm, will become the joint venture’s chief security officer.
Shou Zi Chew will remain the CEO of TikTok’s global operations under ByteDance, and will get a seat on the US-based joint venture’s board of directors, joined by six other Americans:
- Egon Durban, Silver Lake’s co-CEO
- Kenneth Glueck, Oracle’s executive vice president in the office of the CEO
- David Scott, the chief strategy and safety officer at MGX
- Mark Dooley, the managing director at investment firm Susquehanna
- Raul Fernandez, president and CEO of enterprise IT company DXC Technology
- Timothy Dattels, senior advisor to private equity firm TPG Global
How does TikTok US interface with TikTok Global now?
You don’t need to download a new app in order to gain access to the US version of the app; it should update automatically. The new app shouldn’t affect your ability to see content from other countries, at least according to TikTok’s USDS website.
The joint venture says the app will maintain “interoperability” with the TikTok used by the rest of the world, while providing users with a “global TikTok experience.” The same goes for US-based creators, as the site adds that TikTok US will ensure users can discover them “on a global scale.”
TikTok’s US arm will, however, use a new version of the platform’s algorithm that the joint venture will “retrain, test, and update” using US user data — a move meant to assuage fears that the Chinese government could push propaganda through it. Beyond that, we don’t know much else about how your For You feed will differ from those in other countries. We also don’t know how long the algorithm will take to retrain, and when it will launch.
Does a US takeover change TikTok’s terms?
One of the biggest changes to TikTok’s terms of service and privacy policy is that it will now collect your precise geolocation as opposed to just your approximate location — but only if you give the app permission to do so.
The updated terms also add a new section about collecting information from your AI interactions, “including prompts, questions, files, and other types of information that you submit to our AI-powered interfaces, as well as the responses they generate.” Though some users are calling attention to other areas of the agreement, the rest remains largely unchanged when compared to its previous policy, which was last updated on August 19th, 2024.
For example, text about TikTok collecting information that you provide about “your racial or ethnic origin, national origin, religious beliefs, mental or physical health diagnosis, sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status, or financial information,” was also present in the previous terms. Both terms also say the app will collect your location information and the messages you send on the platform, and that TikTok could share your information in response to subpoenas, court orders, and law enforcement requests.
How is content moderation going to change?
The deal puts Oracle in charge of TikTok’s security and data privacy in the US, as well as the algorithm. TikTok’s USDS website also says the newly-formed company will “safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem and have decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and content moderation.”
With TikTok USDS in charge of what users see on the platform, some users have raised concerns about censorship, especially when it comes to content related to Palestine. Larry Ellison, who co-founded Oracle, has cozied up to President Donald Trump, joining a $500 billion initiative to build massive data centers in the US. Ellison also has ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and donated $16.6 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2017, as noted by The Intercept.
Though TikTok USDS doesn’t provide any specifics surrounding content moderation, multiple social media companies have modified their policies to be more Trump-friendly over the past year, and the company’s new leadership could change things too. With a Trump ally owning a large chunk of TikTok, the US-based company may take Trump’s enthusiasm for censorship and distaste for content moderation into consideration. TikTok’s existing community guidelines ban hate speech, misinformation, as well as content that may mislead voters or interfere with elections — all of which could be contentious under a Trump ally.
Many users say they are deleting TikTok after seeing the terms of service pop-up, with some citing the “fascist owners” and links to Ellison. (Hard data on whether people are actually leaving is tougher to come by.) TikTokers are concerned about the changes to the platform’s algorithm and the potential influence of the Trump administration. Some creators are even calling on others to block Oracle’s TikTok account, as well as informing users how to disable geotracking.
But perhaps the bigger question is how all of these changes will impact the tone of TikTok and the kinds of videos that succeed on the platform. The ingredients that make a video go viral now belong to a completely different party — whether they use that power to further an outside agenda remains to be seen.
Kate Ruane, the director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, urges TikTok’s new owners in the US to remain transparent about their plans. “This deal is concerning because it hands control over speech on TikTok to a new consortium of investors with their own motivations for shaping online discourse,” Ruane says. “Anyone who witnessed the change in ownership of Twitter, now X, knows that ownership matters.”
The joint venture is catching the attention of lawmakers, too, with Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) saying the deal “raises more questions than answers.” Markey is also calling on Congress to investigate the deal and “ensure that any arrangement truly protects national security while keeping TikTok online.”