Memo: TikTok CEO Shou Chew hailed the establishment of the TikTok USDS JV as “great news”, and said the app is used by 200M US users and 7.5M US businesses
- TikTok has finalized a deal to keep its business operating in the US. — The deal, a US joint venture …
The setup also has identifiable operational leadership: [[a:1161971|former operations and trust-and-safety head Adam Presser was named CEO of the joint venture]], while Shou Chew remains a director. TikTok frames the outcome around continuity for its US audience and business users.
First-order effects
TikTok’s US operations gain a formal joint-venture structure, reducing the immediate threat of service disruption for the 200M US users and 7.5M US businesses cited by Chew.
The USDS JV becomes the focal point for US governance, with Presser running the entity and Chew retaining board-level involvement.
Second-order effects
Advertisers, merchants, and creators that rely on TikTok can plan against a more stable US operating outlook rather than an imminent ban scenario.
The case points to ownership and governance restructuring—not outright platform removal—as a practical route for resolving national-security disputes around major cross-border consumer platforms.
If replicated, such arrangements could make locally governed entities and investor groups a more common condition for foreign-owned platforms to retain access to strategically important national markets.
The trend: Cross-border internet platforms are increasingly being pushed to separate local governance and ownership structures from global parent companies to preserve market access.
It's so funny that Republicans and Democrats alike were in such a moral panic about how the Chinese gov't would use our TikTok data. And somehow never for a moment did they pause to consider how right-wing US billionaires would use it. www.wired.com/story/tiktok...
Trump (with bipartisan help) offloaded TikTok to his rich technofascist buddies who are going to do everything they spent the last four years accusing China of. Probably more. [embedded post]
The hypothetical “opsec for normie citizens engaging in activism” guide people were talking about needs to include deleting tiktok off their phones. [embedded post]
BREAKING: Now that TikTok is under US-based ownership, the social media app potentially collects more detailed information about its users, including precise location data. — My latest for @wired.com: — www.wired.com/story/tiktok...
According to its new privacy policy, TikTok now collects more data on its users, including their precise location, after majority ownership officially switched to a group based in the US. www.wired.com/story/tiktok...