Will the TikTok deal mean the app changes in the US?

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."

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.

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