On Jan. 22, TikTok announced a deal that should have ended scrutiny of the Chinese-owned video platform, only for new attacks to emerge against the app’s operations and content.
TikTok’s operation in the United States had technically been in legal limbo for about a year due to a law passed by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden in April 2024. Dubbed the “TikTok Ban,” the bill mandated that TikTok’s Chinese parent company sell the app or have it be banned from U.S. app stores. The law went into effect on Jan. 19, 2025, and TikTok went dark in the United States, but only briefly.
In a stark reversal from his previous position, President Donald Trump pledged to refrain from enforcing the TikTok ban, and the platform was operational once again, complete with a thank you message to Trump, who was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025. Trump in 2020 futilely attempted to unilaterally force a TikTok sale, but during his 2024 presidential campaign, changed his tune regarding the app.
Both Trump’s 2020 attempt and the 2024 law were spurred by national security concerns that as a Chinese-owned app, TikTok gave the ruling Chinese Communist Party the ability to exploit American’s user data and algorithm.
The new ownership structure includes 15%stakes each for American private equity firm Silver Lake, Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence company MGX and American tech company Oracle. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, will maintain 20%ownership.
This new ownership regime has been tacitly accepted by American officials who demanded Chinese divestment from TikTok. The House Committee on China released a statement saying that it would continue oversight of TikTok to ensure promises were kept.
Most importantly included in the deal was control of TikTok’s algorithm, which will now be controlled by Oracle. The company had previously been involved in efforts to shore TikTok’s operations to the United States to placate concerns about Chinese control.
However, the $14 billion sale has been far from a smooth transition. Coinciding with TikTok’s ownership change were widespread reports of glitches and buffering issues on the platform. Over 600,000 users reported issues with the platform in the days after the sale. The issues were blamed on a power outage at one of Oracle’s data centers.
The timing of the deal and political developments in the United States also harmed TikTok at a sensitive time for the company. Two days after the deal was announced and finalized, anti-ICE protestor Alex Pretti was shot and killed by Customs and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. The coincidence of a politically contentious shooting and reports that TikTok creators were receiving zero to minimal views on their videos resulted in cries of censorship directed at TikTok’s new owners, among them Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, a prominent monied ally of President Trump.
Scrutiny of TikTok’s privacy policy also fell victim to political fever as users took issue with clauses concerning the recording of users’ location, sexual orientation and ethnic origin. These areas were previously included in TikTok previous privacy policy and are not new.
TikTok users are now reportedly leaving the platform in droves, and downloads of competitor platforms are spiking in the United States.
Much like how Chinese ownership of TikTok was used by hawkish politicians pushing for divestment from America’s authoritarian rival, the new TikTok deal is now becoming a political cudgel for opponents of Trump and his administration, leaving little likelihood that the ownership of one of the largest social media platforms will fall out of contention any time soon.
