Americans are posting sunny social media dispatches about their new lives in Australia, but there is something more revealing underneath.<\/p>\n
Adam Presser, who previously worked as TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety, will lead the new venture as its CEO.<\/p>\n
He will work alongside a seven-member, majority-American board of directors that includes TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew.<\/p>\n
The agreement provides for \u200dinvestors \u2014\u00a0including \u2060cloud computing giant Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX \u2014\u00a0to hold a \u200cstake of 80.1 per cent in the new joint venture.<\/p>\n
TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, will retain 19.9 per cent ownership of the company.<\/p>\n
TikTok’s algorithm has ‘stayed in Beijing’<\/p>\n
For years, TikTok has been seen in Washington as a potential national security threat \u2014 a platform that could be used by Chinese authorities to collect data or spread disinformation.<\/p>\n
Under the arrangement, the joint venture will assume responsibility for content moderation within the US as well as the development and enforcement of related policies.<\/p>\n
![\"Trump](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/e0c612f465c266ca2d9c72201be7e41f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Donald Trump has credited TikTok with helping him get re-elected. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)<\/p>\n
University of Technology Sydney associate professor Marina Zhang said the deal was a “defining moment” as the first time two governments had divided ownership of data on one platform.<\/p>\n
“It creates a template for other countries on how to separate data sovereignty and digital affairs,” she said.<\/p>\n
Still, she said, both sides had made concessions.<\/p>\n
“Washington gained control over data and narrative, while China preserved its intellectual property \u2014 the algorithm stayed in Beijing.”<\/p>\n
During the Biden administration, US Congress passed a law that would ban TikTok in the US if it did not find a new owner in place of ByteDance by January 2025.<\/p>\n
The company missed that deadline and TikTok briefly “went dark” for American users.<\/p>\n
But on his first day back in office, Mr Trump signed an executive order to keep it running.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration had repeatedly extended the deadline for completing the joint venture deal, most recently pushing it back to January 23.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump has more than 16 million followers on his personal TikTok account and credited the app with helping him win re-election.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The White House also launched an official TikTok account in August.<\/p>\n
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