The question of loyalties behind the famed “dance app”, TikTok, is reaching boiling point. Questions of intentions behind the app have been brewing since its explosion in the west due to the Chinese founders of its parent company, ByteDance and its links to the CCP.
Now, The Wall Street Journal reports that ByteDance representatives are meeting with US officials to discuss the future of the app – and apparently there are significant concessions involved in the dealings.
The Wall Street Journal reported that “The talks with US officials and lawmakers have become more urgent for TikTok in recent months as federal and state politicians have made moves to ban the app on government-issued devices. TikTok is hoping that details of its planned reorganization – and promised measures to ensure oversight of its content-recommendation algorithms – will convince potential allies in Washington of its ability to operate independently of its parent company, China-based ByteDance Ltd.”
“In the new proposed arrangement, according to the people familiar with it, third-party monitors would check the code for the video-recommendation algorithms to detect whether it has been manipulated or if the Chinese government or other foreign actors have had access. Provisions in the proposal stipulate that if the US government or the third-party monitors see anything that concerns them, there would be a process to flag the issues to TikTok, and ultimately to the US government if necessary.”
