The Capital Flight From TikTok

Design by Zury Cordova

By Alyssa Beaumont

Capital flight describes the rapid removal of assets or money from a country, typically in response to economic or political instability. TikTok is not a country — though its audience of 1.9 billion monthly users would make it the largest in the world — but it has become a hub for free economic and political discussions. Politicians and corporations recognized this massive global reach as an asset for power and scrambled to take control. But when people felt as if their freedom was being infringed, they were quick to leave. 

Turbulent legislative action against TikTok dates back to early 2024. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act caused the infamous one-day shutdown of TikTok on January 19, 2025. The next day, President Donald Trump issued an executive order delaying the act’s enforcement until April 5, 2025 — recognized in TikTok’s “Welcome back” message, which cited “President Trump’s efforts” for the app’s restoration in the United States. He issued another order to delay the act on April 4, just before the previous one would take effect. The president repeated this strategy twice more until December 16, 2025. 

The act’s implementation was contingent upon the president authorizing a “qualified divestiture”; a new owner taking the place of the foreign adversary (Chinese company, ByteDance) and eliminating national security threats. Such threats were never explicitly proven, but were based on bipartisan fears of a conspiracy between ByteDance and the Chinese government to spy on and sell American data (which was staunchly denied by CEO Shou Chew). 

On September 25, 2025, President Trump announced through an executive order that TikTok’s U.S. operation would now be headed by a newly-established U.S. Joint Venture — putting an end to the looming threat of a national ban.

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC., released an official statement on January 22, 2026 outlining a description of the entity, how it would be operated, and by whom. 

Just four days later, CNBC reported a nearly 150% increase in the daily average of U.S. users deleting the app. A market intelligence firm that tracks digital engagement trends, Sensor Tower, provided the data to them directly. 

Users and ex-users have expressed similar concerns regarding real and presumed changes to their privacy and freedom of expression on the app. 

Many took issue with the updated privacy policy stating that “sensitive personal information” the platform may collect includes “racial or ethnic origin, national origin, religious beliefs, mental or physical health diagnosis, sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status, or financial information.” YouTube creator tannertan36 posted a video titled TikTok Isn’t “For You” Anymore — currently sitting at over 131,000 views and 13,000 likes in two weeks — in which he highlights the unprecedented nature of such information being “harvested in this way.” But an archived Privacy Policy, last updated in August 2024, contains the same clause. Clauses pertaining to location data, another major concern for many, are also consistent between both policies.

The YouTuber also alleges a “full total censorship” after the shift in ownership. An example of such concerns can be seen in the fate of Bisan Owda’s TikTok account.

On January 28, 2026, Palestinian journalist and activist Bisan Owda stated in an instagram video that her TikTok account, with 1.4 million followers, was permanently banned. She said she “expected something like that” before showing a clip of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking during a meeting in September 2025. In the video he states, "We can't fight today with swords. We have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefields with which we engage, and the most important ones are on social media. And the most important purchase that is going on right now is… TikTok, TikTok, number one, number one, and I hope it goes through because it can be consequential."

Owda also shared an excerpt of an interview with Adam Presser, the new CEO of TikTok USDS Joint Venture. “We made a change to designate the use of the term Zionist as a proxy for a protected attribute as hate speech,” Presser said. He also stated that, “Over the course of 2024 we tripled the amount of accounts that we were banning for hateful activity.” Presser previously worked at TikTok and TikTok U.S. Data Security. 

TikTok served as one of Owda’s primary platforms to post independent firsthand footage of the war in Gaza and its effects on the Palestinian people. The journalist won an Emmy in 2024 for her documentary that compiled her recordings: It’s Bisan From Gaza – and I’m Still Alive. 

One of the top comments from the video in which she shared these clips reads, “Everyone needs to delete Tiktok.” It currently has over 6 thousand likes. Another comment, “They can never silence the truth,” paired with the Palestinian flag, has over 8,000 likes. 

TikTok’s algorithm, the set of instructions that is used to filter content, would be the main vehicle for the silencing that many fear.

U.S. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a briefing at the White House, acknowledged, “I know [the algorithm] is a question many of you have had.” According to her statement and an official announcement from the joint venture, the algorithm will be retrained, updated and operated by the new U.S. branch. The American software company Oracle will be responsible for housing and protecting the app’s data (as well as CapCut, and Lemon8, and “a portfolio of other apps and websites in the U.S.,” according to an official statement).

Oracle will also have a 15% share in the joint venture as a managing investor. As will MGX, a UAE-based Artificial Intelligence investment company, and Silver Lake, an investment management firm that specializes in technology. ByteDance maintains a 19.9% share.

A lesser known company has gained notoriety in the midst of TikTok skepticism and scrutiny: UpScrolled. It is a social media platform that promises no bias or shadowbanning, fair algorithms, and solidarity to “uphold social responsibility.” UpScrolled gained 150,000 users in its first six months up until early January 2026. They hit 1 million users in late January and 2.5 million users on February 1.  

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, has praised UpScrolled, stating, “We commend UpScrolled for pledging to protect the free flow of ideas on its platform, including both support for and opposition to the Israeli government’s human rights abuses,” after claiming that TikTok is now owned by pro-Israel extremists. 

“What the Ellisons do not realize is that young people censored on TikTok have no intention of giving up their activism. Young Americans have repeatedly shown that they will not allow politicians, corporations, or colleges to censor their speech,” they assured.  

Migration from TikTok is indeed a repeated pattern. On the precipice of TikTok’s U.S. ban in early 2025, the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu, often referred to as RedNote, saw a rush of new U.S. users. Many dubbed themselves “TikTok refugees.” Sensor Tower told CNN that U.S. mobile downloads almost tripled in the span of a week. 

Both RedNote and UpScrolled have previously ranked number one in the App Store for Social Networking. They now hold the number 41 and number 33 positions, respectively.

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Alyssa Beaumont is a freshman at The City College of New York, majoring in Communications with a concentration in Journalism. She joined The Paper to hone her writing skills and gain experience in the world of journalism. She is a novice movie buff who loves expressing herself creatively.