TikTok announces it has finalized deal to establish US entity, sidestepping ban | US news
TikTok announced on Thursday that it had signed a deal to establish a new US presence, allowing it to circumvent the ban. finish A long legal battle.
to agree TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance is launching a majority-American startup with investors including Larry Ellison’s Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX to have It will own 80.1% of the new asset, while ByteDance will own 19.9%.
The announcement comes five years after Donald Trump threatened to ban the popular platform in the US during his first term.
TikTok’s future in the US was uncertain; The saga began when Congress overwhelmingly passed a law banning the social media app in 2024 unless it can find a US buyer. The high court upheld the law in January 2025, but Trump signed an executive order postponing the ban on his first day in office. Since then, the United States has continued to repeatedly delay enforcement of the sanction while the company and potential American partners negotiate a deal.
In September, Trump signed another executive order outlining a plan for U.S. investors to take over most of the company’s operations and for the new version of TikTok to be controlled by a seven-member board of mostly American cybersecurity and national security experts.
Adam Presser, who previously served as TikTok’s chief executive and head of global operations and trust and security, will serve as CEO of the new venture, the company said Thursday. TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew will be on the board of directors.
The announcement said the US organization “will operate under defined security measures that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software safeguards for US users.” The content recommendation algorithm will be as follows: retrainedThe company added that it was tested and updated based on user data in the USA.
A White House official said the Chinese and US governments had signed the agreement, but the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately comment: Reuters reported.
One to mail On social media Thursday night, Trump thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping “for working with us and ultimately approving the Agreement.” “I’m so glad I helped save TikTok! It will now be owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors who are the World’s Greatest and will be an important Voice,” the President wrote.
Concerns about TikTok from U.S. lawmakers and officials center around user data security and fears that the Chinese government could use the platform to collect data from American users, allegations the company has repeatedly denied.
The law, passed under Joe Biden in 2024, barred ByteDance from maintaining operational ties with a TikTok startup in the US, but the law gave the president the authority to decide whether it complies with the requirements of a deal.
The ban threat had sparked widespread backlash from influencers and content creators using the app in the US.
Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX will each hold a 15% stake in the new venture, the company said. The investment firm of Dell Technologies’ billionaire founder Michael Dell is also an investor.
