VP Vance Says TikTok ‘Successfully Separated’ from ByteDance-Owned Global App—But When Will ‘TikTok America’ Go Live?

Vice President JD Vance said he’s optimistic about the future of TikTok in the US. But when will the American version of TikTok go live?

On Sunday, Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that he feels confident about the future of TikTok in the United States. But it still isn’t clear when the new American-specific version of the TikTok app will go live.

“I feel very confident that we have successfully separated this company from TikTok global and actually made it so that we can control people’s data security,” said Vance on Fox News Sunday. “We can ensure that the algorithm is not being used as a propaganda tool by a foreign government.”

Last Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order approving a proposal that would allow TikTok to continue operating in the U.S., in line with the national security law signed by former President Joe Biden last year. That law would effectively ban TikTok in the U.S. unless the platform’s Chinese parent company ByteDance agreed to sell its U.S. assets to an American entity.

“The way that we’ve set up this deal from a national security perspective is that it’s the American investors and the American businesspeople who will make the determination about what’s actually happening with TikTok,” said Vance, who said last week the agreement values TikTok at around $14 billion.

The terms of Trump’s executive order will see a new joint-venture company overseeing TikTok’s U.S. business, with ByteDance retaining less than a 20% stake to comply with federal law. Among its investors would be tech giant Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and… Abu Dhabi investment fund MGX? Yes, it seems some of the investors are not as U.S.-based as one might be led to believe.

“At the end of the day, I believe that north of 80% of the company will be owned by the American investors and their partners,” said Vance. “This is not something where the Chinese or any Chinese entity has a large stake of the table.

That said, it is believed that ByteDance still stands to benefit tremendously from the deal, which sees the TikTok algorithm effectively on loan to the U.S. entity.

Existing ByteDance investors, including General Atlantic, Susquehanna, and Sequoia, are expected to contribute equity in the new TikTok U.S. company. According to the terms of the deal, the federal government would not take an equity stake—a so-called “golden share”—in TikTok’s U.S. operations.

On the day he signed the executive order, Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping approved the deal, but Vance has said the Chinese government still shows some opposition.

Either way, ByteDance has not acknowledged Trump’s executive order, nor has anyone from the China side of the table confirmed that the transaction is actually taking place. Moreover, there have been no indications that the Chinese government has made any changes to any laws that would be necessary to facilitate a deal.