U.S. TikTok creators can breathe a sigh of relief, with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance coming to terms on a deal that will keep the app active in the nation, and will see the American version of TikTok sold to a group of majority U.S.-based investors.
As reported by CNBC, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has sent an email to staff notifying them of the deal, which will come into effect on January 22nd, a day before the expiry of President Trump’s fourth Executive Order to withhold enforcement of the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.”
As per CNBC:
“TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told employees on Thursday that the company’s U.S. operations will be housed in a new joint venture named “TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC”. As part of the joint venture, Chew said the company has signed agreements with the three managing investors: Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX.”
So they’re not all U.S.-based, but this is the same ownership group that the Trump team approved back in September, when it trumpeted its pending TikTok deal.
Which didn’t progress as expected.
White House officials had expected to get final agreement on the deal shortly after that September press conference, but Chinese officials were less definitive on the deal, with the CCP seemingly seeking more trade or diplomatic concessions before agreeing to the proposal.
Whether any further concessions have been agreed to in order to secure this agreement, we don’t know, but various outlets are reporting that the deal has been communicated to TikTok staff, even though it hasn’t officially been confirmed by ByteDance or TikTok as yet.
So what does that mean for TikTok?
Well, it gets to stay active in the U.S., where the platform has 170 million users.
That’s the main win for the app, though the bigger question than many will have now is what kind of influence the Trump Administration might have over TikTok’s algorithms, and what content people see in the app.
One of the key sticking points of the deal has long been TikTok’s algorithm, and whether any deal would involve the sale of the algorithm code to a U.S. entity.
According to Chew’s announcement, the new TikTok US entity will be responsible for “re-training” the algorithm on U.S. user data, “to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation.”
Which also means that this group will have the power to weigh things as they choose, and with the Trump team set to have a say over who, exactly, will be on the governing board of the group, that could see TikTok’s systems lean further towards Trump-supporting content and perspectives.
The concern here is that TikTok will eventually become more like X, where right-leaning conspiracy theories are allowed far more leeway, helping to amplify questionable claims, and sway voters.
Indeed, X owner Elon Musk is arguably the biggest amplifier of politically-motivated misinformation, and he has repeatedly used his influence over X’s algorithm to boost perspectives that he agrees with, and restrict those he doesn’t.
At first blush, you would assume that TikTok is less politically influential than X, given X’s focus on real-time news discussion. But TikTok has seen a rapid rise as a new source of late, with more Americans now getting news content on TikTok than those who do from X.
That could make this a valuable consideration for Trump’s team, as a means to potentially facilitate the amplification of more pro-Trump, and pro-Republican news stories, in order to better reach younger voters.
Oracle, in particular, is run by long-time Trump supporter Larry Ellison, and its Oracle specifically that will oversee the U.S. TikTok algorithm.
Given TikTok’s success, you would assume that the group would mostly want to keep things running as they are, but maybe, around election time, we could see some influence creeping in, which may change the TikTok feed.
That’s just one consideration as to how the new U.S. TikTok entity will run, and whether there’ll be any major changes to the app as a result of this new management group.
Again, you would assume that business as usual would be the main focus, in order to maximize the platform’s potential. But we’ll have to wait and see how the dust settles, and how much influence and control the U.S. group looks to exert over the platform’s operations.
So maybe, after a year of wrangling, TikTok has finally secured its future in the U.S., providing assurance for many creators in the app.
We’ll wait for official confirmation, but maybe Trump won’t have to issue another Executive Order to keep the app in operation.
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