According to people with firsthand knowledge of the project, TikTok is developing a clone of its recommendation algorithm for its 170 million American users. This might lead to a version that runs independently of its Chinese parent and is more acceptable to US politicians who wish to outlaw the app.
A measure to compel the sale of TikTok's American operations started to gain traction in Congress this year, but it was preceded by the work on dividing the source code that was ordered by ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the app, late last year. April saw the bill's enactment.
The individuals added that if the code is divided, it might pave the way for a spinoff of the U.S. assets, though there are currently no plans to do so. They spoke anonymously because they are not authorised to speak publicly about the short-form video sharing app.
The business has previously stated that it has no intention of selling its U.S. holdings and that doing so would be impractical.
At first, TikTok wouldn't comment. "The Reuters story published today is misleading and factually inaccurate," TikTok stated in a statement on X, opens new tab, following the publication of this news, without going into detail about what was erroneous.
A portion from TikTok's federal complaint was also posted: "It is simply not possible—commercially, technologically, or legally—for TikTok to carry out the 'qualified divestiture' required by the Act in order to continue functioning in the United States. And most definitely not in the 270 days that the Act stipulates."
A representative for Reuters stated, "We stand by our reporting."
In May, TikTok and its Chinese parent firm ByteDance filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court, attempting to overturn the rule that mandated the app's sale or prohibition by January 19. Tuesday saw the establishment of an expedited timeline by a U.S. appeals court to review the legal objections to the new law.
Hundreds of ByteDance and TikTok developers in China and the United States have been given instructions to start sorting through millions of lines of code in order to find movies that suit customers' preferences using the company's algorithm in the last few months. The developers' goal, according to two people with direct knowledge of the project who spoke to Reuters, is to segregate the code base from the systems used by ByteDance's Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, while removing any information that may be connected to Chinese users.
The previously undisclosed strategy reveals the extent to which TikTok is willing to mitigate the bipartisan political risk it confronts and offers a unique glimpse into what a technological separation of the company's U.S. operations may entail. President Biden of the United States and other proponents of the legislation contend that TikTok offers Beijing excessive access to vast amounts of data, which might be exploited for eavesdropping or manipulating TikTok's American users.
It is extremely improbable that the software with algorithms would be sold, according to a prior report by Reuters. In 2020, the Chinese government placed content recommendation algorithms under export restriction, necessitating TikTok's algorithm to be sold or divested in order to comply with administrative licencing requirements.
According to a legal complaint, the source code for TikTok's recommendation engine was initially created by ByteDance developers in China and modified for use in the company's numerous other markets, including the United States.
The success of TikTok's recommendation engine, which tailors each user's content stream based on how they engage with the content they view, has been credited by ByteDance to the platform.
The difficulties of separating the underlying code that links TikTok's U.S. operations with its Chinese parent company is highlighted by the intricacy of the endeavour, which the sources told Reuters was tiresome "dirty work." According to these reports, the project is anticipated to take more than a year to finish.
On the basis of the First Amendment, TikTok and ByteDance have promised to challenge the US law in court. However, according to the sources, engineers are still working under orders to separate ByteDance's wider network from TikTok's U.S. recommendation engine.
Earlier attempts to segregate U.S. user data under the Project Texas name failed to win over politicians and regulators in the United States. The corporation is now attempting to intensify its attempts to demonstrate that its American activities are separate from those of its Chinese owner.
According to the people with knowledge of the matter, TikTok management had briefly discussed opening up parts of the platform's algorithm to outside access and modification in order to show off their commitment to technical openness.
One of the sources who attended the meeting and another who has seen the messages claim that executives have discussed plans and updates on the code-splitting project during a team all-hands meeting, in internal planning documents, and on its internal communications system, called Lark.
One source claims that the task of figuring out which portions of the code may be transferred to TikTok is becoming more difficult due to compliance and legal concerns. Every line of code needs to be examined to see if it belongs in its own code base with the sources added.
The objective is to establish a new source code repository that will only serve TikTok U.S. for a recommendation algorithm. After it's finished, TikTok U.S. will operate and maintain its recommendation system independently of other TikTok applications and Douyin, the Chinese equivalent. According to the insiders, that action would cut it off from the enormous engineering development capacity of its parent corporation in Beijing.
Because TikTok is largely dependent on ByteDance's engineers in China to update and maintain the code base in order to maximise user engagement, sources added, TikTok management is aware of the risk that TikTok U.S. may not be able to deliver the same level of performance as the existing TikTok if the work to split the recommendation engine from its Chinese counterpart is completed.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
A measure to compel the sale of TikTok's American operations started to gain traction in Congress this year, but it was preceded by the work on dividing the source code that was ordered by ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the app, late last year. April saw the bill's enactment.
The individuals added that if the code is divided, it might pave the way for a spinoff of the U.S. assets, though there are currently no plans to do so. They spoke anonymously because they are not authorised to speak publicly about the short-form video sharing app.
The business has previously stated that it has no intention of selling its U.S. holdings and that doing so would be impractical.
At first, TikTok wouldn't comment. "The Reuters story published today is misleading and factually inaccurate," TikTok stated in a statement on X, opens new tab, following the publication of this news, without going into detail about what was erroneous.
A portion from TikTok's federal complaint was also posted: "It is simply not possible—commercially, technologically, or legally—for TikTok to carry out the 'qualified divestiture' required by the Act in order to continue functioning in the United States. And most definitely not in the 270 days that the Act stipulates."
A representative for Reuters stated, "We stand by our reporting."
In May, TikTok and its Chinese parent firm ByteDance filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court, attempting to overturn the rule that mandated the app's sale or prohibition by January 19. Tuesday saw the establishment of an expedited timeline by a U.S. appeals court to review the legal objections to the new law.
Hundreds of ByteDance and TikTok developers in China and the United States have been given instructions to start sorting through millions of lines of code in order to find movies that suit customers' preferences using the company's algorithm in the last few months. The developers' goal, according to two people with direct knowledge of the project who spoke to Reuters, is to segregate the code base from the systems used by ByteDance's Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, while removing any information that may be connected to Chinese users.
The previously undisclosed strategy reveals the extent to which TikTok is willing to mitigate the bipartisan political risk it confronts and offers a unique glimpse into what a technological separation of the company's U.S. operations may entail. President Biden of the United States and other proponents of the legislation contend that TikTok offers Beijing excessive access to vast amounts of data, which might be exploited for eavesdropping or manipulating TikTok's American users.
It is extremely improbable that the software with algorithms would be sold, according to a prior report by Reuters. In 2020, the Chinese government placed content recommendation algorithms under export restriction, necessitating TikTok's algorithm to be sold or divested in order to comply with administrative licencing requirements.
According to a legal complaint, the source code for TikTok's recommendation engine was initially created by ByteDance developers in China and modified for use in the company's numerous other markets, including the United States.
The success of TikTok's recommendation engine, which tailors each user's content stream based on how they engage with the content they view, has been credited by ByteDance to the platform.
The difficulties of separating the underlying code that links TikTok's U.S. operations with its Chinese parent company is highlighted by the intricacy of the endeavour, which the sources told Reuters was tiresome "dirty work." According to these reports, the project is anticipated to take more than a year to finish.
On the basis of the First Amendment, TikTok and ByteDance have promised to challenge the US law in court. However, according to the sources, engineers are still working under orders to separate ByteDance's wider network from TikTok's U.S. recommendation engine.
Earlier attempts to segregate U.S. user data under the Project Texas name failed to win over politicians and regulators in the United States. The corporation is now attempting to intensify its attempts to demonstrate that its American activities are separate from those of its Chinese owner.
According to the people with knowledge of the matter, TikTok management had briefly discussed opening up parts of the platform's algorithm to outside access and modification in order to show off their commitment to technical openness.
One of the sources who attended the meeting and another who has seen the messages claim that executives have discussed plans and updates on the code-splitting project during a team all-hands meeting, in internal planning documents, and on its internal communications system, called Lark.
One source claims that the task of figuring out which portions of the code may be transferred to TikTok is becoming more difficult due to compliance and legal concerns. Every line of code needs to be examined to see if it belongs in its own code base with the sources added.
The objective is to establish a new source code repository that will only serve TikTok U.S. for a recommendation algorithm. After it's finished, TikTok U.S. will operate and maintain its recommendation system independently of other TikTok applications and Douyin, the Chinese equivalent. According to the insiders, that action would cut it off from the enormous engineering development capacity of its parent corporation in Beijing.
Because TikTok is largely dependent on ByteDance's engineers in China to update and maintain the code base in order to maximise user engagement, sources added, TikTok management is aware of the risk that TikTok U.S. may not be able to deliver the same level of performance as the existing TikTok if the work to split the recommendation engine from its Chinese counterpart is completed.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
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