TikTok reaches deal for joint venture to avoid US ban

TikTok has signed a deal to create a new American version of the app, averting the threat of a ban that has been discussed for years in the US.

The social video platform company has signed deals with major investors such as Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to form the new TikTok US joint venture.

The new app will operate under “defined security measures that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software safeguards for U.S. users,” the company said in a statement Thursday.

Adam Presser, who previously served as TikTok’s chief operations, trust and security officer, will lead the new venture as CEO. He will work with a seven-member board of directors made up mostly of Americans, including TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew.

The deal marks the end of years of uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the United States.

The platform was poised to go dark at the January 2025 deadline after wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed a law that would ban TikTok in the US if it cannot find a new owner to replace ByteDance in China.

It was like that for several hours.

But President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that will keep the company operating while his administration seeks a deal to sell it.