TikTok US continues to rely on Chinese technology after mandated sale

TikTok’s U.S. joint venture continued to rely on Chinese‑developed technology in October 2026, a year after the mandated sale forced the company’s separation from parent ByteDance.

The ongoing dependence on ByteDance‑originated tools is drawing fresh scrutiny from regulators who worry that the divestiture may not have fully addressed national‑security risks tied to American user data.

According to a Politico investigation, the TikTok USDS Joint Venture, formed in January 2026, still uses ByteDance’s internal messaging platform Lark and an artificial‑intelligence assistant called Aime, both created by the Chinese firm.

The Justice Department previously alleged in a 2024 legal filing that TikTok employees transmitted “significant amounts of restricted U.S. user data” through Lark, a claim ByteDance has denied.

U.S. staff also face unusual workplace restrictions: they must be escorted when entering TikTok’s global offices on other floors and are prohibited from bringing laptops into those areas. An internal communication emphasized the company’s “core principle” to stay aligned with global standards and preserve a unified user experience.

TikTok says its American entity now controls content‑policy enforcement and will retrain its recommendation algorithm using U.S. user data stored in Oracle’s American cloud infrastructure. Whether the algorithm remains licensed from ByteDance or is maintained by its engineers has not been clarified.

The platform, used by roughly 200 million Americans, also faces mounting legal pressure. In August, it settled a children’s privacy case with the Justice Department for $400 million, and Pennsylvania’s attorney general filed a lawsuit alleging the app’s design is overly addictive.

Regulators are expected to intensify oversight as the investigation into the continued use of Chinese technology unfolds.