A US TikTok, it seems, is actually coming.
The sale of TikTok’s US operations was made nearly official Thursday via an executive order from President Trump, executing the terms of the divest-or-ban law that required TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to cede control of the app’s domestic operations to US-based owners or be shut down. The sale will now likely undergo regulatory approvals from both the US and Chinese governments to make it a sure thing.
If approved, a group of investors including Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, and Rupert Murdoch will oversee a company overseeing TikTok’s US operations, which the White House valued around $14 billion, while ByteDance would reportedly retain less than 20% stock in the new company. The timing of the new app’s launch is not yet clear.
Short order: The announcement is the pinnacle of a yearslong effort and national security panic that began when President Trump attempted to ban TikTok in 2020. Congress then introduced the divest-or-ban bill that passed in 2024 with bipartisan support, was signed into law by President Biden, and was upheld by the Supreme Court. Since taking office, President Trump has delayed implementation of the law four times via legally questionable executive orders, during which time ByteDance and the Chinese government seemed averse to a sale as multiple possible buyers from the US threw their hats in the ring. On Thursday, Trump said he got the “go ahead” from Chinese President Xi Jinping, making the sale possible.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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New faces of control: Six Americans will reportedly sit on the board to control TikTok, with one representative from ByteDance. Under the terms of the deal, US-based users’ data will be stored in the US and overseen by Oracle, which already oversees TikTok’s US user data on its US-based servers. Ellison, who co-founded Oracle, is on track to gain control of various media companies including CBS, Paramount, and now TikTok this year.
Detachment issues? A new algorithm for US users is reportedly on the horizon as part of the deal, which, according to NBC, will be “retrained and continuously monitored to ensure that US content is free from any outside manipulation,” though it’s not yet clear what that will look like.
When word began circulating that a US-only version of the TikTok app was in the works, some expressed concerns about censorship and the impact of a platform ecosystem detached from the rest of the world. While White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that US users will still be able to watch and share content with global audiences, for marketers, it raises questions around audience reach and scale, as well as what global campaigns or TikTok Shop sales could look like. TikTok employees have also expressed anxiety about the fate of their roles.
Should users, creators, and TikTok staffers react negatively to the American version of the app once it comes to fruition, it will be a matter of watching where they go next. For competitors, it could be a Reel opportunity in the Short(s) term.
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