TikTok U.S. joint venture won’t impact Canadian users: cybersecurity expert

The TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone screen. (Kiichirio Sato/AP Photo)

A cybersecurity expert says Canadian TikTok users likely won’t notice any changes to the social media app as major American investors sign a deal to form a new TikTok joint venture.

“This deal happens to be based on U.S. law only and it’s really not that impactful for Canadians on a day-to-day basis,” said Robert Falzon, head of engineering at cybersecurity firm Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Canadians will continue to use the international version of the app that’s owned and influenced by Chinese owner ByteDance Ltd., he said.

TikTok signed agreements with three major investors on Thursday to form a new TikTok U.S. joint venture. The deal is expected to close on Jan. 22, according to an internal memo seen by The Associated Press.

Half of the new TikTok U.S. joint venture will be owned by a group of investors — among them Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX, who will each hold a 15 per cent share. The new app’s 19.9 per cent share will be held by ByteDance itself, and another 30.1 per cent will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors, according to the memo. The memo did not say who the other investors are.

U.S. user data will be stored locally in a system run by Oracle. The memo said American users will continue “enjoying the same experience as today” and advertisers will continue to serve global audiences with no impact from the deal.

TikTok’s algorithm — the secret sauce that powers its addictive video feed — will be retrained on U.S. user data to “ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation,” the memo said. The U.S. venture will also oversee content moderation and policies within that country.

Canadian users’ data will continue to be stored in Singapore, Malaysia and to some degree, in the U.S., while its algorithm will continue to be influenced by the Chinese firm, Falzon said.

Ottawa ordered TikTok to shut its operations in Canada in 2024 but did not ban the app. The decision stemmed from information uncovered during a national security review of ByteDance.

The federal government also banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2025.

— With files from The Associated Press.

Ritika Dubey, The Canadian Press