The United States spent more than five years trying to separate TikTok's US business from its China-based owner ByteDance, through 2020 executive orders that courts blocked and a 2024 law that the Supreme Court upheld in January 2025. After a brief shutdown and a series of enforcement delays by executive order, a majority American-owned joint venture took over TikTok's US operations in January 2026, with ByteDance keeping a 19.9 percent stake. Lawmakers and a lawsuit have questioned whether the arrangement meets the 2024 law.
As of 31 October 2026 TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC runs the US app, and ByteDance holds 19.9 percent. A March 2026 lawsuit in the DC Circuit challenging the deal had no reported ruling as of that date. The House Select Committee on China says it wants TikTok executives to answer its questions in public before the end of 2026.
President Trump signed Executive Order 13942, which barred transactions with ByteDance identified by the Commerce Secretary, to take effect after 45 days. The order said TikTok's data collection could allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal information.
Acting on a referral from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, President Trump ordered ByteDance to divest within 90 days the US assets supporting TikTok and data taken from US users, under the Defense Production Act review of its purchase of Musical.ly.
China's Ministry of Commerce added 23 items, including personal information push services based on data analysis, to its list of technologies restricted for export, Reuters reported. A Chinese trade professor told the state news agency Xinhua the change would apply to any TikTok sale.
Reuters via Gulf NewsThe Commerce Secretary published the list of transactions with ByteDance that would be prohibited under the August order, according to the DC Circuit's later account of the case.
Judge Nichols blocked the remaining Commerce restrictions, saying the department likely overstepped its authority, Reuters reported. A federal judge in Pennsylvania, Wendy Beetlestone, had earlier blocked the same restrictions, which were due to take effect on 12 November.
President Biden signed Executive Order 14034, which revoked the August 2020 TikTok and WeChat orders and told the Commerce Department to review risks from apps connected to foreign adversaries.
From 2021 to 2022 TikTok sent several drafts of a proposed National Security Agreement with Oracle as a trusted technology provider. Its last proposal came in August 2022, according to the DC Circuit.
The House passed H.R. 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, by 352 votes to 65, according to the House Clerk.
The Senate voted 79 to 18 to approve H.R. 815, a foreign aid package that included the TikTok measure, according to the Senate roll call and CNBC.
President Biden signed the package. The law gave ByteDance until 19 January 2025 to sell TikTok's US business, with one possible 90-day extension, or app stores and hosting providers would have to stop supporting the app. TikTok chief executive Shou Chew said the company would challenge it in court.
TikTok and ByteDance filed a petition in the DC Circuit, which the law gives exclusive jurisdiction, arguing the law violates the First Amendment and that a sale was not possible commercially, technologically or legally, The Washington Post reported.
A DC Circuit panel of Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, Judge Neomi Rao and Senior Judge Douglas Ginsburg rejected the First Amendment, equal protection, bill of attainder and takings claims and denied the petitions. Judge Ginsburg wrote the opinion and Chief Judge Srinivasan concurred in part.
TikTok and ByteDance applied to the Supreme Court for an injunction pending review. The Court treated the application as a petition and granted review on 18 December.
The Supreme Court heard argument in TikTok Inc. v. Garland nine days before the statutory deadline.
In an unsigned opinion with no dissent, the Supreme Court held the law does not violate the petitioners' First Amendment rights. Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch wrote separate concurrences.
TikTok said it was restoring service after President-elect Trump said he would sign an order giving ByteDance more time, AP reported. The app remained unavailable in Apple's App Store.
On his first day back in office President Trump signed Executive Order 14166, directing the Attorney General not to enforce the law for 75 days and not to penalise conduct during that period.
Executive Order 14258 extended the enforcement delay to 19 June. Several news agencies reported that Beijing froze talks after new US tariffs, Al Jazeera said, and ByteDance said key matters were unresolved.
A Chinese ministry spokesperson said any TikTok deal must go through Chinese government review and said China opposes forced business moves, Reuters reported.
Executive Order 14310 extended the enforcement delay to 17 September 2025.
After US-China trade talks in Madrid, Chinese trade representative Li Chenggang said the sides reached a basic framework consensus on TikTok, AP reported. Chinese cyberspace official Wang Jingtao said they agreed to authorise use of intellectual property such as the algorithm and to have a partner handle US user data.
Executive Order 14350 extended the enforcement delay to 16 December 2025 and told the Attorney General to defend the executive's exclusive enforcement authority.
After a call between President Trump and President Xi Jinping on 19 September, China's Ministry of Commerce said it welcomed commercial negotiations in line with market rules, Reuters reported.
Reuters via DawnExecutive Order 14352 approved a joint venture majority-owned by US persons, with ByteDance and its affiliates below 20 percent, and recommendation models retrained and monitored by trusted US security partners. It delayed enforcement 120 days. Vice President JD Vance put the US company's value at about $14 billion, Reuters reported.
Representative John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on China, said a licensing arrangement for the algorithm, which White House officials had said would be part of the deal, would raise serious concerns, Reuters reported.
After President Trump met President Xi in South Korea, China's Ministry of Commerce said it would work with the US on TikTok but gave no details, AP reported. The meeting produced no announced TikTok agreement.
ByteDance and TikTok signed binding agreements with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to form TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, Reuters reported on 19 December, citing a memo from Shou Chew. New investors would hold 50 percent, affiliates of existing ByteDance investors 30.1 percent and ByteDance 19.9 percent.
Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yongqian said China hoped companies would reach solutions that comply with Chinese law and balance interests, the state-run Global Times reported.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC was established with Adam Presser as chief executive and a seven-member, majority-American board, TikTok said on 22 January, AP reported. Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX hold 15 percent each and ByteDance 19.9 percent, the venture said. It said it will retrain the recommendation algorithm on US user data and secure it in Oracle's US cloud.
Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources from September, that a separate division wholly owned by ByteDance would control revenue-generating operations. ABC News reported that the ByteDance-controlled TikTok entity would still manage e-commerce, advertising and marketing. A White House official told Reuters both governments had signed off. The Chinese Embassy did not immediately comment.
Oracle said a weather-related power outage at one of its data centres disrupted TikTok over the weekend. Governor Gavin Newsom's office opened a review of TikTok's content moderation, saying it had received reports of suppressed content, and the joint venture said the problems were technical, Reuters reported.
Asked whether China would let ByteDance grant the joint venture an algorithm licence, commerce spokesperson He Yongqian said China had already set out its principles and position, the Global Times reported.
The Public Integrity Project sued President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi in the DC Circuit for two retail investors, alleging the approval did not meet the 2024 law, Reuters and NBC News reported. The suit asks for a renegotiated deal, not a ban, according to Reuters.
Reuters reported that TikTok US chief security officer Will Farrell would testify before the House Select Committee on China on 15 September, the first time a TikTok US executive would testify publicly in the House since the deal.
Reuters via Investing.comChairman Moolenaar told Bloomberg that TikTok pulled out on 27 August from the planned 15 September roundtable, citing child-safety litigation. TikTok did not respond to Bloomberg's requests for comment. The committee plans to invite chief executive Adam Presser again and hold another session before the end of the year, Bloomberg reported.
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Associated Press via PBS NewsHour · pbs.orgLast updated 31 October 2026. Spotted an error? See corrections. Every event links to the record it comes from. Allegations are attributed to whoever made them.