ByteDance to hold one of seven seats in TikTok’s US operations

New Delhi:China’s ByteDance is set to appoint one of seven board members for a newly proposed entity that will control TikTok’s operations in the United States, with the remaining six seats to be held by Americans, according to Reuters. The move is part of efforts to prevent the short-video app, which has around 170 million US users, from being banned.

The development follows a law passed by Congress in 2024, which required TikTok’s US assets to be divested by January 2025 or face a shutdown. Enforcement of the law has been delayed until mid-December 2025 as negotiations continue, Reuters reports, with American investors being lined up to ensure the entity qualifies as a full divestiture.

Reuters adds that under the proposed arrangement, US user data would be stored on domestic cloud infrastructure managed by Oracle. The platform’s recommendation algorithm is expected to be retrained and operated entirely in the United States, outside of ByteDance’s control, addressing long-standing national security and privacy concerns.

The new TikTok entity is expected to be majority-owned by American investors and governed by a board with expertise in national security and cybersecurity. ByteDance would retain a minority stake of less than 20% in the joint venture controlling US operations.

The deal represents a rare breakthrough in ongoing discussions between the US and China, with deadlines for finalising the agreement suggested to extend into April 2026.