After years of negotiation, social media platform TikTok transferred its US operations from Chinese to American ownership, causing user concern for privacy and potential political censorship.
As of Jan. 22, TikTok US has transitioned to majority American ownership, with the previous owner, Beijing-based company ByteDance, now only holding 19.9% stake in the app. The ownership group is known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, a board of seven directors consisting of US investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX.
Since the ownership transfer, users are required to agree to the updated terms of service and privacy policies via a pop-up received upon entering the app, otherwise they will be denied access to TikTok. Among these updated terms are features such as off-platform data usage and precise geolocation tracking for targeted advertising. Since the updated terms, many content creators, celebrities, and everyday TikTok users have announced their departure from the app.
Social studies teacher Mr. Charles Dewitt suggests that the level of personal security both before and after the ownership transfer is most likely comparable.
“We agree to a lot when we sign up for one of these sites in the user license agreement, so I would say that the level of security hasn’t really changed,” Dewitt said.
Oracle, one of the American investors taking ownership of TikTok, is run by billionaire Larry Ellison, a public ally of Donald Trump. This has sparked user concern for potential political bias and censorship of content criticizing Ellison or Trump, as Oracle is now responsible for utilizing user data to retrain algorithms. Users have already reported alleged censorship and “shadowbanning” of certain content criticizing the actions of ICE agents and containing the keyword “Epstein”. To some users, this is reminiscent of X (Twitter)’s restrictions on things such as hate speech being significantly loosened after Elon Musk obtained ownership.
Freshman Giana Barnhouse has noticed some political shifts with her TikTok feed post-ownership transfer.
“Some of my algorithms have changed, but only slightly,” Barnhouse stated.
Since 2019, efforts to ban TikTok from US devices for national security concerns have been made across several administrations, leading to the negotiation and eventual settlement for an American-owned version of the app. However, the new version of TikTok still may not meet the requirements of the law as passed by the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which requires that the American owners hold no operational relationship with the former foreign company. Although ByteDance, a former foreign company still has 19.9% stake in the company, this has caused some concern that there may have been ulterior motives behind the ownership transfer.
Dewitt suspects that some of this concern may not be unfounded.
“Whether they care if China also has similar data, I couldn’t speak to that, but I would say that there’s probably a significant incentive within the government to have as much data on the users of TikTok as possible,” Dewitt stated.
During a previous TikTok ban in Jan. 2025, millions of users abandoned the app and joined the Chinese app Red Note (Xiaohongshu) to avoid potential censorship at the premise of American ownership negotiations under Trump. Similar patterns were noted immediately following the Jan. 22 ownership transfer, with TikTok deletion briefly spiking and installment of alternative social platforms such as UpScrolled increasing.
Dewitt encourages practicing media literacy while absorbing news through the internet.
“I would generally encourage anyone who’s interested in being aware of current events in the news to have many different sources or incorporate many different sources into their information diet,” Dewitt stated.
