Here’s How TikTok Might Change for You If You Live in the US
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The last year and a half have been challenging for TikTok in the US. In April 2024, President Biden signed a law requiring the app’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell its majority stake to a US company or face a ban in the US. ByteDance never did so, and so the app shut down in January.
However, this was largely a sham. President-elect Trump had already assured TikTok that his new administration would not impose a ban, as outgoing President Biden had done. Therefore, after Trump was sworn in, he signed an executive order deferring the TikTok ban. Trump continued to defer the ban, which, although legally dubious , allowed the app to continue operating as usual.
It appears, however, that this frantic race is coming to an end. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order paving the way for the US to acquire a controlling stake in TikTok. Nothing has been finalized yet , but the app’s new owners could include American companies like Oracle, as well as individuals like Larry Ellison (co-founder of Oracle) and Rupert Murdoch. Interestingly, a non-US company, the Abu Dhabi-based investment fund MGX, will also be involved in this process. This joint venture will control the majority of the new US TikTok, while ByteDance will control less than 20%.
Trump claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping approved the deal, although no Chinese representatives were present when the executive order was signed. Again, nothing is certain yet, but we can look at the preliminary details to understand how the new “American-approved” TikTok will operate in the US.
How will TikTok change in the US?
Let’s start at the beginning: the app itself. It’s highly likely that you’ll have to download a completely new app to continue using TikTok. This has been the subject of speculation for a couple of months , but as the Washington Post reports , TikTok engineers are working on a US version of the app. The new app will likely look identical to the familiar TikTok interface and could, in fact, be accessible via a link within the current app. The Post emphasizes that the more difficult it is for users to access the new TikTok app, the more likely they are to abandon the platform entirely for alternatives like Instagram and YouTube, so TikTok engineers will undoubtedly be working on ways to make the transition as smooth as possible.
And then there’s the famous algorithm. It’s what makes TikTok so addictive: the app’s algorithm is so good that it remembers your preferences and shows you content that keeps you scrolling for hours. Without this algorithm, TikTok could easily lose its addictive power, and with it, its users. The Post reports that, at least for now, the algorithm remains the same and will be leased from ByteDance by the new American project TikTok. Furthermore, you’ll still be able to see international content, not just videos posted by Americans. In theory, TikTok should be as entertaining (and addictive) as ever.
But that’s not all. According to Trump’s executive order, the algorithm will be “retrained and monitored” by the United States’ “trusted security partners.” This doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence in the neutral algorithm among Americans, especially given Trump’s claims that he would make it “100% secure” if he could .
Finally, there’s the issue of user data. This was a major concern for the US government and one of the reasons the Trump and Biden administrations began targeting the app. And not without reason : ByteDance was revealed to have indeed stored American user data and used it to obtain the IP addresses of American journalists. According to the president’s executive order, all user data on the US version of TikTok will be stored in a cloud environment managed by the American company.
We’ll have to see how ByteDance and the Chinese government respond to the presidential decree and potential asset sale in the future, as the situation could change. For now, however, it seems like nothing will change, everything will. You’ll still be able to endlessly scroll through your news feed as you do now, but it might require a new, identical version of the app. You might see the same content as now, or you might start seeing new content that’s suspiciously aligned with the current administration’s values. And your data will still be controlled by a faceless third party, only now it will be your own country, not a foreign one.