China’s ByteDanceByteDanceByteDance is a Chinese internet technology company that owns TikTok and Douyin, a Chinese version of TikTok with a successful e-commerce arm.READ MORE has struck a deal with a clutch of investors to set up a new U.S.-focused TikTok that complies with the country’s regulatory requirements.
ByteDance will retain a 19.9% stake in the new TikTok, which will be “majority American-owned,” the Chinese company said in a statement. The new entity will have three managing investors — private equity firm Silver Lake, software giant Oracle, and Emirati investment firm MGX — each holding 15%. Investors in the U.S.-focused TikTok also include Dell Family Office, and Yuri and Julia Milner’s Virgo LI, among others.
The joint venture “will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for U.S. users,” the statement said. This would enable “more than 200 million Americans and 7.5 million businesses to continue to discover, create, and thrive as part of TikTok’s vibrant global community and experience.”
TikTok’s former head of operations, Adam Presser, will be the chief executive officer of U.S. TikTok.
The battle over TikTok in the U.S. has spanned two presidencies, multiple court rulings, and a growing technological standoff between Washington and Beijing. What began in 2020 as a national security order from President Donald Trump in his first term has evolved into one of the most complex and high-profile tech regulation cases in the world.
Here’s how it all unravelled:
August 2020 – President Trump orders the U.S. Department of Commerce to restrict businesses from dealing with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, claiming the Chinese government has access to user data gathered by the social media app — a charge the company denies.
The order gives ByteDance a 45-day ultimatum to sell a majority stake in TikTok to an American entity, and requires companies like Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores in the U.S.
August 2020 – ByteDance files a lawsuit against Trump, saying it was “shocked” by the executive order and would “pursue all remedies available.”
September 2020 – TikTok wins in court. A federal judge blocks the government’s decision to stop the app’s operations in the country.
January 2021: President Joe Biden takes office.
June 2021 – Biden revokes Trump’s executive order, stating that the decision to ban the app should be based on an “evidence-based approach.” He orders the U.S. Department of Commerce to review apps designed and developed by those in “the jurisdiction of a foreign adversary,” such as China, to see if they pose a risk to national security.
April 2024 – The U.S. Congress passes bills to protect Americans from apps built by foreign adversaries, which brings the TikTok ban back to the table. Biden signs the bill and gives ByteDance 270 days to sell TikTok. Failure to do so would lead to TikTok being banned from U.S. app stores.
April 2024 — The Chinese company contests the new mandate and threatens legal action. ByteDance CEO Shou Zi Chew, in a video posted on TikTok, tells users the company isn’t going anywhere.
November 2024 – Trump wins the presidential election, cementing his return to the White House.
December 2024 – The federal Court of Appeals upholds the ban on TikTok. The company requests that the ruling be paused while it attempts to get the Supreme Court to hear the case. The Supreme Court agrees to hear the case.
President-elect Trump files a request to the Supreme Court seeking a delay in the implementation of the TikTok ban until he takes office on January 20. The court declines, and later issues a ruling to uphold the TikTok ban.
January 2025 – TikTok shuts down in the U.S. on January 18. But 12 hours later, President-elect Trump says he intends to extend the TikTok ban’s deadline, promising to “make a deal to protect our national security.”
On January 20, his first day in office, Trump signs an executive order, delaying the ban for 75 days and instructs the U.S. Attorney General not to enforce the law. The app, however, remains unavailable on digital stores.
February 2025 – TikTok returns to Apple and Google app stores in the U.S. Trump says the 75-day ban on TikTok could be extended.
April 2025 – The February extension ends, and Trump announces another 75-day extension, saying the TikTok deal “requires more work” to get the needed approvals. ByteDance says talks are ongoing, though any potential deal is subject to Chinese law.
According to Reuters, China pauses the negotiations between ByteDance and the U.S. government in a tit-for-tat move after Trump imposes sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports. Beijing believes the TikTok ban is a strategy to curb China’s technological advances and that the U.S. is using national security concerns as a pretext to suppress foreign competitors.
July 1, 2025 – Trump says a buyer for TikTok will be revealed “in the coming weeks,” adding it is “a group of very wealthy people.”
July 6, 2025 – Reuters reports TikTok staff are working on M2, a new version of the app that will be available only in the U.S. The new app is reportedly set to launch on September 5, 2025, with the old TikTok app becoming unusable in March 2026.
August 19, 2025 – The White House launches an official TikTok account with a video of Trump saying, “I am your voice.” The video caption reads: “America we are BACK! What’s up TikTok?”
September 15, 2025 – U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent meets his Chinese counterparts in Madrid, Spain. He tells reporters that the September 17 deadline for TikTok’s ownership switch motivated the Chinese side to reach an agreement, as they did not want the app to go dark for American users. He hints that the deadline could be extended by 90 days to allow the agreement take shape.
January 23, 2026 – ByteDance announces the setting up of a joint venture with a clutch of “majority American” investors to launch a U.S.-focused TikTok that meets the country’s data security requirements.
