TikTok, created and owned by ByteDance (a Chinese technology company), became a global platform in 2018 upon its merger with Musical.ly. However, in January of 2026, the fate of TikTok in the United States became uncertain when the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that TikTok’s parent company must sell its platform or face a ban. Severe security concerns about TikTok’s data and its access by the Chinese government led to this potential U.S. nationwide ban.
To avoid the ban, ByteDance finalized a deal to restructure ownership to TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, which is owned primarily by U.S. investors, and relinquish control over data privacy and algorithm management to the United States. This finalized sale complied with the “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which the United States Congress passed in 2014 to mitigate national security risks.
Although the platform’s sale resulted in a significant number of users deleting the app, the majority of its user base remained. However, the new privacy policy, accompanying TikTok’s switch in ownership, may not be completely understood by users. The most notable update involves changes in location tracking: before the update, data concerning precise GPS locations were not collected from users. Now, enabling location services results in automatic collection of location information from the device. Furthermore, any user interaction with artificial intelligence becomes collectible data; this includes AI prompts and generated outputs. TikTok has also changed its advertising privacy policy, allowing the collection of data to target individuals beyond the app and provide relevant advertisements even outside the platform itself.
Thus, while the app remains functional, the algorithm, due to changes to the privacy policy and data security, is no longer the same. In the U.S., TikTok’s new owners are retraining the algorithm, separate from ByteDance’s original code, to reflect U.S. cultural preferences, potentially favoring local and regional content over international trends.
