TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will control 80.1% of the venture. The consortium includes three managing investors: the Larry Ellison-owned Oracle; private equity group Silver Lake; and Abu Dhabi government-owned investment firm MGX (each have 15%). There are also eight smaller stakeholders. ByteDance retains 19.9%. Agreements were signed back in December and the deal was finalised last week.<\/p>\n
Since then TikTok users here and abroad have<\/a> been<\/a> complaining<\/a> about major technical glitches, like low viewer counts and glitchy feeds, trouble uploading and loading content, blocked words and censorship. TikTok\u2019s first week of US ownership was described as disastrous<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sounds frustrating.<\/p>\n Many users claim that TikTok is increasingly suppressing content about Ice<\/a> (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and Palestine<\/a>. There are high-profile names among them. Billie Eilish posted on Instagram that \u201cTikTok is silencing people\u201d, and Hacks actor and comedian Meg Stalter said she was leaving the platform, saying users were being \u201ccompletely censored and monitored<\/a>\u201d under the new ownership and she was unable to upload any content about Ice.<\/p>\n California governor Gavin Newsom isn\u2019t stoked either. He questioned TikTok US\u2019s allegiances and supported allegations of censorship. \u201cFollowing TikTok\u2019s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports, and independently confirmed instances, of suppressed content critical of President Trump,\u201d his press office said in a statement published<\/a> on X. Newsom announced<\/a> he would be launching an investigation into whether the app \u201ccensoring Trump-critical content\u201d violated California state law.<\/p>\n There are also concerns about data privacy and increased surveillance following an update<\/a> of US TikTok\u2019s privacy policy and terms of service \u2013 the contract<\/a> users agree to with its new owners \u2013 which allows for the optional collection of \u201cprecise location data, depending on your settings\u201d.<\/p>\n What did TikTok, sorry, TikTok US, say about it all?<\/p>\n Well, some of the censorship claims, including reports that particular words can\u2019t be sent via direct message, prompted a response from TikTok. \u201cWe don\u2019t have rules against sharing the name \u2018Epstein\u2019 in direct messages and are investigating why some users are experiencing issues,\u201d a spokesperson told NPR<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other glitches were blamed on external factors. Oracle has said<\/a> that the \u201ctechnical issues\u201d users were experiencing were caused by a \u201ctemporary weather-related power outage\u201d at its data centre (the destructive winter storm Fern was hitting the US at the time). It confirmed users could experience multiple bugs, slower load times, timed-out requests, trouble posting new content, and may \u201ctemporarily\u201d see zero views or likes on their videos.\u00a0<\/p>\n By February 1 the company said service had been restored and issues resolved, explaining more about what happened. \u201cThe winter storm led to a power outage which caused network and storage issues at the site and impacted tens of thousands of servers that help keep TikTok running in the US. This affected many of TikTok\u2019s core features \u2013 from content posting and discovery to the real-time display of video likes and view counts.\u201d<\/p>\n Mystery solved then?<\/p>\n Some of it, maybe. Some details of the divestment remain unclear. AP reports<\/a> that under the terms of this deal, ByteDance will license the influential and closely guarded TikTok algorithm to TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC \u201cfor retraining\u201d purposes, but \u201cany cooperation with respect to the operation of a content recommendation algorithm\u201d is prohibited.<\/p>\n Wait, hasn\u2019t this been going on for ages?<\/p>\n Good memory! Banning TikTok was first suggested by Trump in 2020. On August 6 of that year, the president, then in his first term, signed an executive order<\/a> addressing the \u201cthreat of TikTok\u201d and the risk foreign-owned apps posed to \u201cthe national security, foreign policy, and economy\u201d of the US, effectively outlawing \u201ctransactions<\/a>\u201d between ByteDance and US citizens.\u00a0<\/p>\n In April 2024, then president Joe Biden signed a federal law \u2013 the catchily named Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act \u2013 that would make it illegal for web-hosting services to support \u201cforeign adversary apps<\/a>\u201d like TikTok. It would be removed from app stores unless ByteDance sold the app.\u00a0<\/p>\n By December 2024 Trump appeared to have changed his mind, the then president elect calling<\/a> the app a \u201cunique medium for freedom of expression\u201d. While TikTok challenged the law, in January 2025 the Supreme Court upheld<\/a> the ban, which came into effect on January 19. TikTok went dark for a day, before returning to the app stores and normal use when Trump extended the divestment deadline. He would do so four times before this final deal was, finally, done.<\/p>\n And TikTok\u2019s still pretty influential, sorry, a \u2018unique medium for freedom of expression\u2019?<\/p>\n The US is its biggest market in the world, with over 200 million users, according to TikTok. A 2025 study <\/a>from Pew Research Center showed 55% of TikTok users regularly got their news from the app, and 20% of US adults consumed their news on the platform, compared to 3% in 2020.<\/p>\n The outsized influence apps like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook have on young people is part of a growing backlash against the platforms, manifesting in app-blocking technology and dumb phones, ongoing media coverage and challenges via legal channels. This week\u2019s \u201csocial media addiction<\/a>\u201d trial in Los Angeles is poised to be a landmark case in the push for accountability and responsibility from tech companies, with lawyers representing 1,6oo plaintiffs accusing them of \u201cnegligently<\/a>\u201d creating digital products that caused harm like addiction and depression. TikTok was among the defendants, along with Meta and Alphabet, but it reached a settlement with the claimants hours before jury selection began. Snap Inc, which owns Snapchat, has too.<\/p>\n TikTok has seen its popularity \u2013 and influence \u2013 skyrocket since launching in 2018 and competitors were quick to follow the format. It\u2019s among the apps being targeted by Australia\u2019s social media ban<\/a>. France is following that country\u2019s lead by putting in place age limits; this week its National Assembly voted<\/a> in favour of banning under 15-year-olds from using both social media apps \u2013 including TikTok \u2013 and \u201csocial networking functionalities\u201d on other platforms.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also fresh concern from users about the data collected by TikTok from profiles and content on the platform. Its privacy policy itemises sensitive information like users\u2019 race, ethnicity and nationality as well as \u201creligious beliefs, mental or physical health diagnosis, sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status, or financial information\u201d. (TechCrunch<\/a> notes that many users might be reading the terms and conditions for the first time, following the in-app message after the divestment.)<\/p>\n OK, but what about New Zealand?<\/p>\n For users outside the US, TikTok is still owned and operated by ByteDance, which is headquartered in Beijing. But we\u2019re served a lot of US content on the app. Exactly how much is hard to pinpoint since each personalised feed is wildly different, but it\u2019s safe to say there\u2019s a ripple effect. The \u201ctechnical issues\u201d were noticed here by local users.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAny effects will likely be secondary and inconsistent. The change in TikTok ownership is only for TikTok US, and changes to terms and conditions apply to US users,\u201d says Michael Daubs, a senior lecturer in the media, film and communication programme at the University of Otago. \u201cThere have also been some complaints about bugs and glitches with the app and videos not loading properly since the ownership change, though mostly in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n Any dramatic shift in user base, like people leaving the platform, would also be noticeable (and possibly followed) here in New Zealand. \u201cThe change in ownership and to the terms and conditions have led many US users to post less or even delete their accounts. Some who have deleted their accounts have pointed to privacy concerns (location tracking, collection of ethnicity and gender data, though that was in the user terms before the ownership change), concerns about or claims of censorship, especially of content critical of the current US president or Ice, or ethical or moral differences with the new ownership,\u201d Daubs explains. \u201cThat means some content creators that users in New Zealand may have followed might not be available any more.\u201d<\/p>\n TikTok opened an office in Auckland in 2022<\/a>. That year the Parliamentary Service warned all political parties (via email<\/a>) that using TikTok on a government phone \u201ccould pose a security risk where data on your devices could be accessed by ByteDance (the owner of TikTok) and the Chinese government\u201d. The app was banned<\/a> on government devices from 2023 \u2013 including for members<\/a> of the defence force \u2013 but prime minister Christopher Luxon operates a TikTok account, as do Labour, the Greens, Act, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori and New Zealand First. New Zealand company Zuru, reportedly<\/a> one of TikTok\u2019s biggest advertisers, focuses most of its spend on the US market.\u00a0<\/p>\n They\u2019re all among the estimated 1.9 million<\/a> New Zealanders understood to use TikTok, though the app showed a slight decline<\/a> among 15- to 39-year-olds in NZ On Air\u2019s last Where are the Audiences study.<\/p>\n Trends on the platform move famously fast. Recent months have seen \u201canalog bags\u201d (an antidote to doomscrolling), Chinamaxxing<\/a> and the year 2016 seizing the attention of users here and around the world. If, like many TikTok users, you\u2019re in a \u201cvery Chinese time<\/a>\u201d in your life and planning to travel there this year, don\u2019t expect TikTok to work. ByteDance operates a separate algorithmic, user-generated video app, Douyin, for the Chinese market.<\/p>\nTikTok users from New Zealand and around the world were quick to flag the glitches (Images: TikTok @rhettmc, @nowthisimpact)<\/p>\n
Meg Stalter and Gavin Newsom were among the big names raising questions about the app following its change in ownership (Images: Instagram @megsstalter, X @GovPressOffice)<\/p>\n
The TikTok ban has been making headlines since 2020. (Images: NPR, CNN, New York Times, Politico, CNN, RNZ, The Guardian)<\/p>\n