The IT Nerd

A Reuters report that was posted late yesterday has blown my mind. In short, ByteDance who’s back is against the way because of Congress all but banning TikTok if ByteDance doesn’t sell it, actually prefers that that the app be banned in the US if legal options fail here’s why:

The algorithms TikTok relies on for its operations are deemed core to ByteDance’s overall operations, which would make a sale of the app with algorithms highly unlikely, said the sources close to the parent.

TikTok accounts for a small share of ByteDance’s total revenues and daily active users, so the parent would rather have the app shut down in the U.S. in a worst case scenario than sell it to a potential American buyer, they said.

A shutdown would have limited impact on ByteDance’s business while the company would not have to give up its core algorithm, said the sources, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Assuming that this is true, I have to wonder what do those algorithms do? Every social network except Mastodon has them. But they’re usually to present you with stuff that you’re interested in. Or try to target advertising towards you. The cynic in me says that they do a lot more than that, and ByteDance doesn’t want anyone to find those details out. That also suggests to me that TikTok and ByteDance fighting to keep the app alive in the USA is not about users or free speech or anything like that. Which makes this ban the right decision as clearly ByteDance has something to hide that likely is counter to their core agreements.

This entry was posted on April 26, 2024 at 9:41 am and is filed under Commentary with tags TikTok. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.