TikTok handover proves bumpy, US cut off from the rest of the world

The official handover of TikTok's US business to the new TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC on Friday, January 23, 2026, marks a turning point in the history of the short video service. However, the launch under the new management, which includes Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX from Abu Dhabi, has been anything but smooth. While President Donald Trump is celebrating the deal as a success, several media outlets in the US are reporting massive technical problems and criticism of the new terms of service.

The New York Times highlights the revised privacy policy that US citizens must accept when they log in for the first time. With the appropriate permissions, the app now collects not only the approximate location of users, but rather their precise location. Furthermore, data collection for personalized advertising has been massively expanded and now also includes activities outside the TikTok app. Interactions with generative AI will also be systematically recorded and analyzed in the future.

The first weekend after the ownership change was also plagued by technical issues. According to reports from The Verge, users complained about problems logging in and uploading videos. Many clips were stuck in review for hours, while international users outside the US experienced no such problems. TikTok USDS attributed the disruptions to a power outage at a US data center, but speculation is already circulating on social media about censorship related to current protests in Minneapolis.

A key promise from the new owners is interoperability, ensuring that US users can continue to access content from around the world. Nevertheless, the algorithm for the US is to be completely retrained based on local data in order to dispel security concerns about Chinese influence. Whether the app will retain its "magic" when the original ByteDance algorithm is replaced by a US version remains to be seen.