Will the US TikTok deal make it safer but less relevant?

TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance has signed a deal with investors to run its business in the US.

But what does this mean for the over 170 million Americans (or so the social media platform claims) who use the app?

The key may lie in how TikTok’s recommendation algorithm – the powerful system that curates the platform’s For You Page to predict content you might watch – is managed when it changes hands.

Social media industry expert Matt Navarra told the BBC the question will not be whether TikTok survives, but “what version of TikTok survives”.

Currently, TikTok’s system depends on huge amounts of global data and feedback loops, which can change recommendations in an instant.

Under the terms of the deal TikTok’s algorithm, which will be licensed by investor Oracle, is set to be retrained on American user data.

Mr Navarra said this could leave the app feeling “safer and sturdier” but also leaving it at a risk of “becoming less culturally essential” as a result.

“TikTok’s power has always come from feeling slightly out of control – weird, niche, uncomfortable, sometimes politically sharp content for anyone else or before it goes anywhere else,” he said.

“If you start smoothing those edges, you don’t just change moderation. I think you change its relevance.”

Whether the US version will differ from the TikTok so many know and use already may also depend on if it gets “all the new features, security updates and platform improvements” as soon as the international version does, tech journalist Will Guyatt told the BBC.

And computing expert Kokil Jaidka from the National University of Singapore said she expected the things that make the platform popular – such as its short videos and shopping – are likely to “stay intact” as these features are not dependent on the algorithm.

She said the changes might be more subtle and gradual, depending on if the narrower data inputs of the “siloed” US version can match the app’s global reach.

“If TikTok is operating with a licensed or partially diluted version of its recommendation algorithm, some of the system’s blind spots may start to matter more,” she said.

For users, she said this means in practice the US algorithm may “lag in personalisation” and take longer to adapt to viral content.

Oracle is TikTok’s longtime cloud computing partner in the United States, and is chaired by Larry Ellison, an ally of President Trump.

Another foreign entity, MGX – an Abu-Dhabi government investment fund – will join it along with private equity firm Silver Lake as the main incoming investors.

Pressure from these investors may also add to the US app feeling “blander” said Mr Navarra.

“I think the real test won’t be whether the users leave,” he said.

“It will be whether TikTok still feels the place the internet goes to experiment – or if it becomes the place it goes to behave.”

Additional reporting by Peter Hoskins.