TikTok Avoids Ban, But Does It Matter?

By Brittany Siminitz | February 02, 2026

After multiple deadline extensions and cliff-hangers regarding its Chinese ownership, TikTok’s future in the United States has been secured with new ownership by a U.S.-led joint venture.

“The TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC has been established in compliance with the executive order signed by President Trump on Sept. 25, 2025, now enabling more than 200 million Americans and 7.5 million businesses to continue to discover, create, and thrive as part of TikTok’s vibrant global community and experience,” said a Jan. 22 statement from TikTok. “The majority American–owned joint venture will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for U.S. users.”

Chinese company ByteDance retains a nearly 20% ownership stake in TikTok. The major U.S. investors in the joint venture include tech companies Oracle and MGX and private equity firm Silver Lake. Oracle cofounder and executive chairman Larry Ellison has “known connections to President Trump,” notes Yahoo! Finance, and MGX “contributed to a $100 billion AI data center initiative announced by President Trump.”

While TikTok users had waited for with bated breath for over a year to see if their beloved app would survive a proposed ban, some are now wondering whether the resolution is everything they’d hoped for.

“Hi so today I will be downloading my videos and deleting my TikTok page,” comedian and actress Megan Stalter wrote last week on Instagram. “TT is under new ownership and we are being completely censored and monitored. I’m unable to upload anything about [ICE] even after I tried to trick the page by making it look like a comedy video.”

Stalter isn’t the only one unhappy with the new TikTok. It was reported that in the first five days after the joint venture was announced, the daily average of U.S. users deleting the app increased nearly 150% compared with the previous three months.

Many people cite language in the new user agreement—which permits TikTok to collect data related to a user’s racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, citizenship or immigration status, or financial information—as their reason for deleting the app. At a time of heightened uncertainty for so many, these disclaimers raise a red flag, though it should be noted that an archived version of the policy from 2024 shows similar language.

“I closed it due to security problems. I don’t want any app sharing my immigration status with ICE,” a Costa Rican jewelry designer who has permanent U.S. residency tells JCK. “It sucks, too, because I’ve gotten so much business from people finding me on it.”

“Two years ago, my team and I decided we would lean into my being Costa Rican more and talk about that part of my story. Now with the way things are, I feel hesitant,” says the designer, who wishes to go unnamed—a testament to the fear spreading among immigrants and citizens alike, and having an impact on the way designers do business.

“I feel like I love being authentic and sharing my story. There aren’t a lot of Hispanic/Latino fine jewelry designers, and I grew up not having anyone that looked like me to look up to. I want to be someone that people can look up to,” the designer says.

Other jewelers have expressed similar concerns about the new ownership. “My decision to delete TikTok was mostly about alignment,” says Jessica Liu, founder of the brand Petit Anjou. “While I know we don’t have a complete picture of what’s going on internally, the broader conversations I’d been hearing around data use, content moderation, and the platform’s evolving ownership gave me enough pause to want to step away.”

TikTok seems here to stay, but now it doesn’t feel like the discovery playground it once was. Whether the platform remains central to a jeweler’s marketing strategy might depend on their comfort level with the new owners’ potential use of certain personal data. If enough users decide to delete the app or close their accounts, the decision to expend money marketing on TikTok or efforts expanding your presence on it might be moot.