By Clara Stern
These days, teenagers spend more of their free time doomscrolling on the app TikTok, consuming endless amounts of media than doing anything else. But although almost every kid has TikTok, how much do they truly know about it?
Before the recent ownership change, the app was owned by a Beijing-based company “ByteDance”. It was founded in 2012, and acquired ownership of TikTok in 2017.
However, the U.S. government became concerned that the Chinese ownership had too much access to American users’ data, and passed a law in 2024 that forced ByteDance to either sell the app, or be banned.
In December 2025, Bytedance agreed to sell a large portion of the app to a majority American investors in order to fulfill the U.S. regulations. While Bytedance still retains a 19.9% stake in TikTok, the app will now be managed by three different investors: Silver Lake, a private equity firm; Oracle, a software giant; and Emirati, an investment firm. Each holds an old 15% stake.
With this acquisition of the app, Oracle, owned by long-time Trump supporter Larry Ellison, is now in charge of managing the U.S. recommendation algorithm, allowing it to influence and regulate content to prevent foreign manipulation, thus shaping what U.S. users will see on their FYP.
Many users on the app have complained that their feed has been altered, including IHS junior Riya Srivastava, who said, “I’ve definitely noticed a change in the videos on my feed.”
Without the sale, TikTok would have been banned in the U.S. The thought elicited different reactions from high school students.
Junior Zoya Bhandari said “I personally wouldn’t have minded a ban. I think it would have been beneficial because TikTok had been shortening my attention span.”
On the other hand, Junior Gabriella Vukelj said “TikTok is super fun and I would be so disappointed if it got banned. I love unwinding with a couple of videos.”
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