At the beginning of 2026, a years-long battle between the Washington administration and the Chinese company ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, finally comes to an end. After multiple rounds of legislative pressure and repeated threats of a total ban in the US, ByteDance has agreed to hand over control of its US operations to a group of non-Chinese investors.
The new entity, called TikTok USDS Joint Venture, is more than 80% owned by American investors, with Oracle, Silver Lake, and the MGX fund each holding 15%. ByteDance retains only a 19.9% financial interest, with no control over decisions or the algorithm.
What changes? For the user, possibly nothing. But on the technical and regulatory side:
- data of US users will be stored in a secure cloud controlled by Oracle in the United States;
- the recommendation algorithm will be requalified and managed within the new entity, with direct access only to local data;
- decisions regarding security and content moderation in the US will be taken mainly by the management of the American joint venture.
What changes for the rest of the world? For us in Romania or the rest of Europe, things stay the same, our TikTok will continue to be operated by the global structure. Still, it’s hard to believe that such a major change in their largest market won’t influence how the platform evolves everywhere.
If the US version becomes cleaner or more tightly controlled, the EU might also start demanding similar conditions.
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