TikTok Avoids U.S. Ban With Major Deal

TikTok will continue operating in the United States after its parent company, ByteDance, signed a new agreement with U.S. authorities. The deal ends a long-running legal and political battle. For years, Washington had pressured the Chinese-owned ByteDance to sell its U.S. TikTok operations over national security concerns. The new arrangement creates a partnership with the American tech company Oracle. Oracle will now host all U.S. user data on its own cloud servers to keep it secure. A U.S.-led team will also monitor TikTok's content recommendation system. This agreement is designed to address fears that American data could be accessed by the Chinese government. U.S. officials had threatened a complete ban if no deal was reached. The deal must still receive final approval from a U.S. national security panel. If approved, it allows TikTok to keep running for its millions of American users and creators.