Concerns Persist for TikTok’s U.S. Operations Post-Divestment
Almost a year after TikTok’s U.S. operations were sold off, the newly formed TikTok USDS Joint Venture continues to rely significantly on technology and practices inherited from its former Chinese parent company, ByteDance, as suggested by interviews and internal documents reviewed by Politico.
The article mentions that while the sale officially closed in January 2026 and the new U.S. entity was established that same month, employees are still using Lark, the internal messaging app created by ByteDance. Additionally, they’re utilizing an AI assistant named Aime, which also operates within Lark.
One TikTok employee commented on the situation, pointing out, “There’s a necessity to communicate with our global colleagues, but I can think of a thousand different ways we would be able to do that that wouldn’t necessarily violate at least the spirit of this agreement,” while discussing the ongoing use of Lark for communication.
This whole divestment was triggered by concerns from Congress in 2024 regarding data collection practices and potential ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Although ByteDance has denied any such associations, the Justice Department claimed in a 2024 legal document that TikTok workers had transferred significant amounts of sensitive U.S. user data to each other using Lark.
The connection between the companies is evident beyond just the software they use. Within TikTok’s office spaces, U.S. employees require supervision to visit global offices located on different floors and are prohibited from bringing laptops into those areas. Currently, the platform has around 200 million users in the U.S.
In January, TikTok USDS Joint Venture shared a statement highlighting security measures for American users, insisting that the entity “will operate under defined safeguards.” An internal message elaborated on how policy decisions are made post-split, emphasizing that the core principle is to remain as aligned with global standards as possible to maintain the global experience.
Since the divestiture, TikTok US has assigned new email addresses to employees and replaced previously offered restricted stock units from ByteDance with a profit-sharing plan providing cash bonuses related to operating profits. Now, TikTok US has the final authority over content policies for its American users and has stated plans to “retrain, test, and update the content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data,” which is stored within Oracle’s cloud services in the U.S. However, it remains uncertain whether this algorithm was initially licensed from ByteDance or if ByteDance engineers are still involved in its maintenance.
Legal issues and reputational challenges continue for TikTok. In August, the company settled a lawsuit concerning children’s privacy with the Justice Department for $400 million, while Pennsylvania’s attorney general filed a lawsuit that same month regarding allegedly addictive design features on the platform. In response, TikTok has announced collaborations with two child safety organizations and rejoined the tech lobbying group NetChoice after being previously removed due to pressure from Republican lawmakers, alongside becoming a member of Technet, an organization focused on policy in Washington.
