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.

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Editor of the original article: Marc Herter – Managing Editor Consumer Laptops – 552 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021

From an early age I liked to thoroughly examine all kinds of devices to see how they worked, which also involved taking my own devices apart and therefore not always to the delight of my parents. Nevertheless, with my grandfather’s support, I became a computer and electronics tinkerer. With the family PC and Lego Mindstorms, my interested in software and programming took off, and I am currently an engineering program student. I enjoy building all sorts of gadgets with Arduino and 3D printers, and I still like to put electronic devices through their paces. By joining the Notebookcheck editorial team, I have been able to turn my hobby into a profession.

Translator: Jacob Fisher – Translator – 2744 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2022

Growing up in regional Australia, I first became acquainted with computers in my early teens after a broken leg from a football (soccer) match temporarily condemned me to a predominately indoor lifestyle. Soon afterwards I was building my own systems. Now I live in Germany, having moved here in 2014, where I study philosophy and anthropology. I am particularly fascinated by how computer technology has fundamentally and dramatically reshaped human culture, and how it continues to do so.