On September 25, 2025, the future of TikTok in the United States took a dramatic turn as President Donald Trump signed an executive order greenlighting a new ownership structure for the wildly popular social video platform. The move comes after more than a year of legal wrangling, political debate, and mounting national security concerns over TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, and its ties to the Chinese government. The new arrangement, which has been described by sources familiar with the negotiations and outlined in official White House documents, attempts to thread the needle between keeping TikTok available to its 170 million U.S. users and satisfying the strict requirements of U.S. law.
According to reporting from Reuters and LifeSiteNews, the deal establishes a newly formed joint venture to operate TikTok’s U.S. application. This new entity will be majority-owned and controlled by American investors, with ByteDance retaining less than 20 percent ownership. The remaining shares will be held by a consortium of investors, including high-profile names such as Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch, and Larry Ellison, though the exact makeup of the group has not been fully disclosed. The new joint venture is to be run by a fresh board of directors and, crucially, will have full authority over TikTok’s U.S. data, content moderation, and the all-important recommendation algorithm.
This arrangement is a direct response to the bipartisan Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in April 2024. The law, motivated by concerns over ByteDance’s alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party and its military and surveillance activities, required ByteDance to divest its U.S. operations by January 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban of TikTok. The law also set strict guardrails, forbidding any cooperation with foreign adversaries regarding data sharing or the operation of content recommendation algorithms. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law, giving it added weight and urgency.
Despite these firm legal requirements, the road to a final deal has been anything but straightforward. Trump, who has frequently spoken about TikTok’s role in helping him reach younger voters—he boasts 15 million followers on his personal account and credits the app with aiding his 2024 reelection—issued multiple extensions to the divestment deadline, even though the law only allowed for a single 90-day extension. Critics in Congress, such as House Select Committee on China chair John Moolenaar, have voiced skepticism over whether the proposed structure truly severs TikTok’s operational ties to ByteDance. “The law also set firm guardrails that prohibit cooperation between ByteDance and any prospective TikTok successor on the all-important recommendation algorithm,” Moolenaar emphasized, vowing to conduct full oversight of the deal.
Under the terms outlined by the White House and reported by LifeSiteNews, the new joint venture will manage TikTok’s algorithm, code, and content moderation, while all sensitive U.S. user data will be stored securely in the United States on Oracle-run cloud servers. The agreement also mandates intense monitoring of software updates, data flows, and algorithmic decisions, with American security partners overseeing retraining and monitoring of any recommendation models that use U.S. data. The federal government has postponed enforcement of the ban for an additional 120 days to allow time for the deal to be finalized.
Yet, even as the White House touts the deal as a win for both national security and TikTok’s massive user base, questions remain. According to Reuters, ByteDance will retain ownership of TikTok’s revenue-generating business operations in the U.S., such as e-commerce and advertising, through a separate division wholly owned by the Chinese company. This means that while the joint venture will control the technical and operational side of TikTok in the U.S., ByteDance will continue to reap financial rewards from the platform’s lucrative American market. Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that ByteDance is expected to be the single largest minority shareholder in the joint venture, and that the new U.S. company is valued at around $14 billion, according to Vice President JD Vance.
Some observers, including members of Congress and national security hawks, are wary that ByteDance’s continued financial stake and potential influence over the platform could undermine the spirit, if not the letter, of the 2024 law. Reports in Chinese media, briefly published before being taken down, described a two-part structure in which ByteDance would continue to own the parts of TikTok U.S. responsible for branding, e-commerce, and international interconnection, while the new joint venture would handle user data and algorithms. This complex arrangement has fueled ongoing debate about whether it truly constitutes a full divestiture as required by law.
For the Trump administration, finding a way to preserve TikTok’s presence in the U.S. has become a political imperative. The app’s vast reach among young Americans has made it a key battleground for political messaging and voter engagement. As the White House stated, “President Trump found a solution for the 170 million Americans who use TikTok, ensuring users will be able to safely enjoy the same global TikTok experience and view content from around the world with the confidence that their data is secure in the United States.” The administration has also launched its own official TikTok account, signaling a new embrace of the platform at the highest levels of government.
Despite the celebratory mood in some circles, the deal’s critics remain vocal. Business Insider, cited by LifeSiteNews, pointed out lingering uncertainties about who exactly will control TikTok in the U.S., given the opacity surrounding the investor consortium. Others question whether ByteDance’s less-than-20-percent stake is small enough to eliminate concerns about foreign influence, especially given the company’s ongoing control over TikTok’s global operations and revenue streams.
The coming months will be critical as the deal moves toward finalization and federal oversight intensifies. Congress, security agencies, and the public will be watching closely to see whether the new structure delivers on its promises of data security, operational independence, and compliance with U.S. law. As the debate continues, one thing is clear: TikTok’s fate in America remains a high-stakes, high-profile saga at the intersection of technology, politics, and international relations.
For now, TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users can breathe a sigh of relief—at least temporarily—as the platform they love gets a new lease on life, even as the questions swirling around its ownership and security are far from settled.
