US EditionWho Owns TikTok Now and How Could It Change for US Users?
- On Jan. 23, 2026, TikTok finalised a deal creating TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC with a U.S.-majority board of 7 directors, including Shou Zi Chew, while ByteDance retains a 19.9% stake.
- To satisfy national‑security and privacy demands, TikTok restructured its U.S. operations as Chinese laws like the 2017 National Intelligence Law compel companies to assist state intelligence, while U.S. lawmakers feared ByteDance ownership could enable surveillance.
- Licensing the recommendation algorithm to Oracle secured U.S. data handling, with Oracle hosting U.S. user data in its secure U.S. cloud and retraining models on U.S. data under Project Texas.
- On Jan. 23, 2026, many U.S. users saw an in-app pop-up about updated terms, with the privacy policy listing citizenship or immigration status, though the wording predates the ownership change and reflects CCPA rules.
- Operating under a licensed algorithm could constrain data sharing and update cadence, but TikTok joint venture safeguards also cover CapCut and Lemon8 after they briefly went dark in the U.S.
51 Articles
51 Articles
‘Hacks’ Star Meg Stalter Deletes TikTok After Claiming New Ownership Is Blocking Videos About ICE; Platform Says Disruption Is Due to Power Outage
"Hacks" breakout Meg Stalter has deleted her TikTok account after claiming that the app's new ownership is censoring videos critical of ICE.
US TikTok Deal Falls Short
US TikTok Deal Falls Short acabral-sanche… Mon, 01/26/2026 - 11:01 SVG Podcast Jan 26, 2026 PBS News Hour US TikTok Deal Falls Short Michael Sobolik Senior Fellow Michael Sobolik Podcast Caption (Screenshot via PBS) Toggle Table of Contents Contents Contents Share to Twitter Twitter Share to Facebook Facebook Share to LinkedIn LinkedIn Share to E-mail E-mail Print Print Michael Sobolik appears on PBS News Hour to discuss the end of…
The umpteenth update of TikTok's terms of service arrived as always: a notification, a few lines to scroll, a button to press to continue using the app. But...
Hacks' Meg Stalter Says She's Deleting TikTok Amid New Policies After US Takeover
Meg Stalter is taking a stand against TikTok‘s new policies related to ICE. The 35-year-old Hacks star shared a new post on Instagram, revealing she will be leaving the platform, where she’s garnered millions of views and likes, with thousands of followers. However, after it was revealed ...
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