The new TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC has been created, and a new US-based algorithm will be put into place, which leave users with the choice to stick around or find an alternative.
On December 18, an agreement was finally made between US investors and ByteDance to bring TikTok within the requirements set by the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications law. Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi state-run MGX will own portions of TikTok, and ByteDance will keep only 19.9% starting today.
A press release from TikTok confirmed that the deal went through and provided a few additional details about the new joint venture. Notably, they've confirmed that US users will still have access to TikTok globally.
The seven-member, majority-American board of directors includes TikTok CEO Shou Chew, Timothy Dattels of TPG Global, Mark Dooley, of Susquehanna IG, co-CEO of Silver Lake Egon Durban, Raul Fernandez of DXC Technology, Kenneth Glueck of Oracle, and David Scott of MGX.
Adam Presser was TikTok's head of operations and trust and safety, but now he's CEO of the US branch. Will Farrell is Chief Security Officer and oversees data privacy and cybersecurity.
The following consortium of investors is:
- Dell Family Office — investment firm of Michael Dell
- Vastmere Strategic Investments
- Alpha Wave Partners
- Revolution
- Merritt Way
- Via Nova
- Virgo LI
- NJJ Capital
The joint venture helps TikTok continue operations in the United States alongside other apps like CapCut and Lemon8. Oracle will be handling data protection and security in a US cloud environment, plus it will help with reviewing app source code to ensure security and safety are maintained.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture will retrain, test, and update the content recommendation algorithm on US data. The Joint Venture is also taking responsibility for content moderation and what appears to users in the United States.
What this means for TikTok users
The deal has only just been finalized and the joint venture established. While work may have already begun beforehand, nothing was official until now.
TikTok is a popular app in the United States
Users shouldn't notice anything different yet, though some TikTok users have complained in the last couple of weeks of reduced retention and viewership numbers. These complaints could be related to backend changes, but there's no telling if it was in preparation for this deal or something else.
In any case, there is no way of knowing exactly what might become of TikTok and its users in the long term. There's a chance that so little will change for the end user that only the most vocal protestors will depart the platform in solidarity.
There's also the chance TikTok could see dramatic changes similar to X, which has been in slow decline since Elon Musk took over and changed the name from Twitter. The decline has progressed enough that it allowed Threads to pass it by in daily active users, at least by some counts.
Signs of the TikTok deal have been showing up in other social media channels, namely Bluesky. The TikTok-like platform built on the Bluesky ATProtocol, Skylight, has seen daily new user counts go from hundreds to thousands per day in the past week, for example.
Bluesky itself has also seen an influx of users, but that's more likely due to the issue with nonconsensual pornographic imagery and CSAM being generated on X driving users away. By the most recent public count, Bluesky is at about 41 million users and could see a boost soon from the EU's alternative X ATProtocol-based app, W.
The companies and people behind the changes at TikTok are close friends and business partners with the United States President. Some expect this could lead to dramatic and partisan changes to the platform — many even describing it as "state media."
Time will tell what happens with TikTok, but like any social media platform, they come and go. If TikTok falls out of popularity, there's likely to be one that takes its place.
Note that AppleInsider maintains accounts on Meta platforms, X, Bluesky, Mastodon, TikTok, and YouTube to reach its readers wherever they are. If you'd like to learn about the history behind the TikTok ban and this situation, I've detailed that at length in the previous story.
