TikTok ban: all the news on the app’s shutdown and return in the US – The Verge

TikTok blames its US problems on a power outage

2026-01-26T11:26:53-05:00

TikTok says a power outage is causing ongoing issues and outages that started in the US early Sunday morning. In an email to The Verge, TikTok USDS spokesperson Jamie Favazza pointed to a statement posted to the joint venture's newly-created X account, which says the company has been "working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate."

On Sunday, many US users, including some of us here at The Verge, reported not being able to upload videos to TikTok or see most new videos, including new videos uploaded successfully by users from outside the US. Others said that their a …

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TikTok USA is broken

2026-01-27T12:19:35-05:00

TikTok has suffered from extensive problems on its first weekend after completing a transaction that changed the ownership of its US arm. According to Downdetector, the issues initially spiked in the early hours of Sunday morning, but many users, including editors here at The Verge, are still reporting errors.

On Monday morning, TikTok USDS head of communications Jamie Favazza responded to our inquiries, pointing to a post on a newly-created X account for the US joint venture that said its current issues are the result of a data center power outage.

TikTok USDS:

Since yesterday we've been working to restore our services following a pow …

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Congress doesn’t seem to know if the TikTok deal complies with its law

2026-01-23T17:08:43-05:00

TikTok finally closed a deal meant to bring it into compliance with the law that should have banned it a year ago, and the lawmakers who passed that law still don't seem to know what's going on.

The company announced Tuesday that its US service is now part of the separate TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, with parent company ByteDance holding just a 19.9 percent stake in that new entity. The rest is owned by Oracle and investment firms Silver Lake and MGX, as well as smaller investors including Michael Dell's family investment firm. Oracle will store US data and the joint venture will "retrain, test, and update the content recommendation algor …

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What TikTok’s new owners mean for your feed

2026-01-23T15:06:31-05:00

TikTok is officially under new ownership in the US, and that could spell big changes for the video-sharing app. On January 22nd, ByteDance - TikTok's Chinese parent company - and a group of investors closed a $14 billion deal to spin off the platform's US operations, introducing a new slate of American executives.

The Silver Lake investment firm, Abu Dhabi's MGX, and the cloud giant Oracle will each have 15 percent stakes in the new TikTok US Data Security (USDS) Joint Venture LLC. ByteDance will still hold a 19.9 percent stake in the company, in line with the divest-or-ban law that went into effect last year - though the deal was pushed th …

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The TikTok deal is done, finally

2026-01-23T14:12:46-05:00

Just over a year after it briefly disappeared from app stores, TikTok in the US is now part of a new entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. With approval from both the US and China closing on the schedule laid out in December, ByteDance's ownership of the new joint venture is now only 19.9 percent to satisfy the terms of the divest-or-ban law signed in 2024 by President Biden. The other 80.1 percent is owned by investment firm Silver Lake, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX - the three "managing investors" that now hold 15 percent stakes - and several other smaller investors, like Michael Dell's family investment firm.

A press releas …

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The TikTok US sale is finally happening

2025-12-18T20:39:44-05:00

TikTok has finalized a deal to sell enough of its US business satisfy the divest-or-ban law, as initially reported by Axios, The Hollywood Reporter, and CNBC. According to a memo sent from CEO Shou Zi Chew to employees (included in full below) on Thursday, they are targeting a closing date of January 22nd, 2026. Once the deal is done, he writes that ownership stakes in TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will break down as follows:

Specifically, the U.S. joint venture will be 50% held by a consortium of new investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX with 15% each; 30.1% held by affiliates of certain existing investors of ByteDance; and 19. …

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The TikTok deal raises more questions than answers

2025-09-26T15:39:07-04:00

Following months of delays, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that's supposed to "save" TikTok. Trump claims the deal will make the app "American-operated," fulfilling the divest-or-ban law that threatened the China-owned app's presence in the US. But the Trump administration didn't reveal any information about who will own TikTok's US operations, or how much they'll own. And questions remain about whether the new agreement - and the steps taken to get there - is even legal.

"The TikTok saga has been the single clearest articulation, the single most vivid example of the lawlessness of this administration, of its imperial …

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Trump signs ‘Saving TikTok’ order to start resolving its big ban problem

2025-09-25T18:02:27-04:00

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order recognizing the framework of a deal between ByteDance and the US that would satisfy the TikTok divest-or-ban law. The deal values TikTok's US operations at $14 billion and puts it under the control of companies based in the US.

"I spoke with President Xi [Jinping], we had a good talk," Trump said during a briefing. "I told him what we were doing, and he said, 'Go ahead with it.'"

Under the deal, TikTok "will be majority-owned and controlled" by companies based in the US. The order states that TikTok's US-based operations will have a new board of directors that will have to follow rules t …

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Trump claims the US is about to get a tremendous fee for taking TikTok out of China

2025-09-19T19:45:06-04:00

A 10 percent stake in Intel, 15 percent of Nvidia's China sales, a "golden share" of Nippon Steel - what price will Trump extract next in exchange for favorable treatment? Well, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump Administration is "expected to collect a multibillion-dollar fee" in exchange for negotiating a US takeover of TikTok's US business.

That fee will reportedly come from TikTok's US investors, including private equity firm Silver Lake and Oracle, with the new group getting half of TikTok, while TikTok China's parent company ByteDance would still have under 20 percent.

Yesterday, Trump said that "the United States is …

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So… is there a TikTok deal or not?

2025-09-20T14:51:28-04:00

China and the US have "made progress" on granting permission for ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American consortium, fulfilling a nine-months-overdue legal requirement. After saying a tentative deal had been reached Monday and that approval would come Friday, President Donald Trump's administration has issued an update that leaves the current status ambiguous and the details bare-bones.

"I just completed a very productive call with President Xi of China. We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal," Trump posted …

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