TikTok deal may help avoid US ban. What does it means for users?

TikTok may finally have a deal to keep it up and running for good on Americans' smartphones.

ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese owner, stated on Thursday, Dec. 18, that it had signed agreements giving majority control of the video-sharing app's U.S. operations to a group of investors, including AI and cloud computing giant Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based tech firm MGX.

However, the financial terms of the new U.S. TikTok joint venture deal remain unclear, with various news accounts indicating that the investors may hold less than 50%, or as much as 80%, of the joint venture, based on reporting from The New York Times , Reuters and Los Angeles Times .

The agreement , announced Thursday, Dec. 18, resembles a preliminary deal announced in September 2025 by President Donald Trump .

A successful deal could end several years of uncertainty for the popular Chinese-owned social media app, used obsessively by as many as 170 million Americans.

Here's what we know so far about the deal, and how it may affect U.S. TikTok users.

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Will TikTok deal prevent a ban?

TikTok has been under threat of a ban since 2020 when then-President-elect Trump first called for one, citing national security issues .

In 2024, lawmakers and the U.S. intelligence community raised concerns about the possibility of the Chinese government using TikTok to spy on Americans and spread propaganda. Congress passed legislation in 2024, which President Joe Biden signed, requiring ByteDance to sell its U.S. assets or face a ban .

Trump, who credited TikTok with helping him win the 2024 election, has issued several extensions of the ban, with the most recent setting a deadline of Jan. 23, 2026, for TikTok to sell its U.S. assets.

If the deal goes through, the agreement could result in a seamless transition for TikTok. “For users, short-term changes are likely to be limited. The interface and scrolling experience will probably feel familiar," said Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University, in an online statement .

If the deal limits the transfer of some technology, TikTok could change over time, Kreps said. "The central question is the recommendation algorithm – the system that rapidly learns what keeps users engaged. If that engine remains largely intact, the experience will too," she added.

It's those details that may make or break the deal. Specifics are important because the 2024 legislation requires a divestiture of all of TikTok's U.S. assets. According to a memo seen by Reuters , TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told employees the joint venture would "operate as an independent entity with authority over U.S. data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance."

Oracle will be entrusted with "safeguarding sensitive U.S. user data, which will be stored in a trusted and secure cloud environment in the United States run by Oracle," according to the TikTok memo to employees.

However, the memo still doesn't specify what entity owns TikTok's algorithm for U.S. users. All social media platforms have algorithms that recommend content based on users' overall usage and profiles. But TikTok's algorithm has been deemed exceptional, as it also suggests "many videos that are outside of the user's (known) interests," according to U.S. and German research published last year.

Based on what we know of the deal so far, it remains unclear whether the algorithm would be transferred to or licensed by the U.S. venture, or if it would still be owned and controlled by Beijing, with Oracle merely providing "monitoring," Rush Doshi, who served at the National Security Council under President Biden , said on X .

According to the memo, the new TikTok U.S. joint venture would be responsible for “retraining the content-recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation," Variety reported.

What will happen to TikTok?

That remains to be seen. For now, the app remains available in Apple and Google app stores in the United States.

However, the details in the announced agreement, which TikTok said would close on Jan. 22, could lead to hurdles. For starters, the Chinese government has yet to give its approval of the deal, although Trump had hinted in September that he had finalized a TikTok deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping

Congress could have something to say, too. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., expressed concern about the unanswered questions involving the deal. "Trump wants to hand over even more control of what you watch to his billionaire buddies. Americans deserve to know if the president struck another backdoor deal for this billionaire takeover of TikTok," she said on X .

When the preliminary U.S. TikTok deal was announced in September, Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., who serves as the chair of the House Select Committee on China, said it should "preclude operational ties between the new entity and ByteDance" and prevent cooperation between ByteDance and U.S. TikTok on "the all-important recommendation algorithm."

ByteDance has previously said it would rather shut down the app in the United States than sell it.

If the agreement faces complications, Trump could extend the ban deadline through an executive order.

What TikTok users will experience when the deal is done remains to be seen, Kreps said. “The deeper issue is not whether TikTok will feel different to users, but whether the conditions that once justified extraordinary concern have been materially altered or just managed. The original risks were always about data access, influence, and control over a powerful recommendation system," she said.

While the proposed deal "may limit direct access to U.S. user data and introduce additional oversight, it remains unclear how effectively it constrains subtler forms of influence or ensures sustained accountability," according to Kreps.

Contributing: Greta Cross, USA TODAY, and Reuters

Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at   mikegsnider  &   @mikegsnider.bsky.social  &   @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: TikTok deal good for US users? Here's what we know so far.