TikTok Plans Special US App as It Looks to Stay In the Game
Credit: koshiro / Adobe Stock
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Although TikTok has seemingly become impregnable under the Trump administration, the fate of the social media service remains in legal limbo.
President Donald Trump signed his third executive order last month to grant yet another reprieve to keep the service up and running. However, the executive branch doesn’t have the authority to cancel the Congress-ordered ban entirely; all Trump can do is order the US Justice Department to suspend the enforcement of the ban.
To recap, the ban on TikTok was initially scheduled to take effect on January 19 as a result of an early 2024 bill intended to prevent the ownership of social media networks by “foreign adversaries.” The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) was passed with strong bipartisan support, and wasn’t so much about banning TikTok as ensuring that it wasn’t being operated by a Chinese state-controlled firm. However, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, refused to sell. Instead, it appealed the ruling and ultimately lost.
TikTok didn’t escape the ban entirely. The service went dark for about 14 hours on January 18–19, until then-President-elect Trump saved the day by promising to stay the ban as soon as he took office, which he did.
Since then, TikTok has remained operational through two subsequent deadlines and extensions. While some suspect that President Trump would be happy to keep on extending the deadline every 90 days, there have also been several reports of a deal in the works as the President courts potential suitors and works to convince ByteDance and its Chinese overlords to agree to a sale.
Now, it appears that the three sides may be closing in on a deal. According to The Information, not only is there something on the table that should meet PAFACA’s requirements, but it will also come with a new version of the TikTok app exclusively for users in the United States.
The buyers are a consortium of non-Chinese tech firms, the report says, likely including Oracle, which has been eyeing a piece of the social media network since the first Trump administration. ByteDance is expected to retain a minority stake in the company. While TikTok already operates servers in the United States, the transfer will also include a guarantee that all data for US TikTok users will be stored on servers under Oracle’s control within US borders.
The new version of the TikTok app is reportedly planned for release on the App Store on September 5. The original version will be removed from the US App Store once the replacement is published; however, it will continue to operate until March 2026 for users who have already installed it.
It’s unclear what the differences will be between the two apps, but the US one will likely have mostly internal changes to remove elements that ByteDance doesn’t want to make available to the new owners, such as its algorithm. The new one is described as a “fork” of the current app, with an “M2” designation to distinguish it from the main app, which is internally referred to as “M.”
There’s also no word yet on where Beijing stands on this arrangement. Even if the Trump administration has found a consortium of willing buyers, a final deal still needs to be approved by the Chinese government, which could prove challenging amid the ongoing trade war between the two countries.
