NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — After much uncertainty over whether the popular app TikTok would remain in the United States, the company has signed a deal to sell its U.S. operations to a group of American investors.
Recognizable entities, like Oracle and Silver Lake, are among those investors.
This took place after a federal law passed last year said TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, had to choose to either remove itself from the app's American operations or lose access to US app stores.
Now, much to the relief of daily users and content creators, TikTok is here to stay.
Dr. Andy Borchers, a management professor at Lipscomb University, said the deal means your data and the app's algorithm will be under American jurisdiction.
"The real important part of this story is that the data for US users will be stored by Oracle in the United States," he explained.
News of the sale comes after widespread worry and a heated discussion about potential Chinese influence on users through the app, especially when it comes to US elections.
"170 million users, most of them fairly young people, use TikTok, and they didn't want the Chinese government influencing what messages our audience, our fairly young audience, would see," said Dr. Borchers.
He went on to say the user experience likely won't change, other than "the subtleties of what you're shown. Are you shown a Chinese preferred view of political events, for example, or something that's maybe more balanced?"
A major investor in the new deal, Oracle, also has ties to Tennessee. The company plans to build its headquarters in Nashville, on the East Bank along the Cumberland River. At this point, it's unclear whether the recent sale of TikTok will play into its local operations.
Come late January, when the deal is solidified, at least 80% of the new TikTok entity is expected to be American-owned.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at nikki.hauser@newschannel5.com.
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