“User data flows can be audited,” says Ma of Tech Buzz China. Others believe that TikTok can find a way to reassure the US government and defy the technological decoupling that the US and China seem intent on. “So it doesn’t just matter where it’s stored.” “Something that gets missed is that it’s not just leverage over the data, it’s leverage over people with access to the data,” Frederick says. Kara Frederick, a research fellow in technology policy at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, says it’s difficult to see how ByteDance could satisfy US concerns over privacy and security. #Who owns tictoc code“Even if no non-Chinese user data is transferred to China, the Chinese government might be able to order changes to TikTok's source code to enable such transfer or other features they want,” says Pellaeon Lin, one of the researchers involved. But they describe a company where management power rests in China and where engineering and product decisions come from the parent company.Īn analysis of TikTok and its Chinese counterpart, Douyin, conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab in March, found evidence that the apps share a common codebase. A spokeswoman for TikTok says the algorithms used to determine what videos users see, as well as those that automatically help catch prohibited content such as nudity or hate speech, are “developed separately” in the US and that user data is kept within the US.įormer TikTok engineers who spoke to WIRED on condition of anonymity say protections are in place to stop data being shared easily within the company. TikTok maintains that the US offering is walled off from ByteDance’s Chinese business. Last September, TikTok made a deal to make Oracle its “secure cloud provider,” an arrangement that the US company said would guarantee that no US customer data ended up being sent to China. TikTok’s CEO is now Shou Zi Chew, ByteDance’s CFO, who is based in Singapore. Meyer left the company just three months later, citing “the political environment” and the likelihood of TikTok being sold to a US company. These include hiring the former Disney executive Kevin Mayer as US CEO, as well as COO of the parent company ByteDance, in May 2020. Under increased scrutiny from the Trump administration, TikTok made efforts last year to distance itself from Beijing. “But then he created this whack-a-mole mess, ruling by executive order." “I think the Trump administration rightly identified privacy and security concerns,” says Ainikki Riikonen, a research assistant focused on technology at the Center for New American Security. Some serious questions linger over the app’s ownership and operations, as well as how much personal data it collects on US citizens and how its algorithms could perhaps be used to shape what American’s think. The app is a striking example of China’s high tech business savvy, outmaneuvering some of the world’s largest social media companies, like Facebook and Twitter, on their Silicon Valley home turf. TikTok’s US users increased to 73.7 million in April from 65.9 million at the end of 2020, according to eMarketer, an analyst firm. But TikTok’s ties to China remain a concern for the US government, especially as its reach and influence grows. The company has faced pressure from the government in recent years over racy or salacious content served up by its news app Jinri Toutiao (meaning “today’s headlines”). Trump’s looming ban was met last year with shock and incredulity from TikTok-addicted teens others noted the irony of shutting down a platform that prizes freedom of expression in the name of punishing China, where information is tightly controlled.īyteDance hardly seems to be an agent of the Chinese government. The app serves up an endless stream of remixed songs, memes, viral clips, and the odd celebrity cameo, algorithmically selected to appeal to your interests and tastes. TikTok might seem an unlikely object of superpower competition.
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