TikTok preparing a US copy of the app's core algorithm
TikTok is working on a clone of its recommendation algorithm for its 170 million U.S. users that may result in a version that operates independently of its Chinese parent and be more palatable to American lawmakers who want to ban it, according to sources with direct knowledge of the efforts.
The work on splitting the source code ordered by TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance late last year predated a bill to force a sale of TikTok's U.S. operations that began gaining steam in Congress this year. The bill was signed into law in April.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Product ManagementVisitIIT DelhiCertificate Programme in Data Science & Machine LearningVisitIndian School of BusinessProfessional Certificate in Product ManagementVisit The sources, who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the short-form video sharing app, said that once the code is split, it could lay the groundwork for a divestiture of the U.S. assets, although there are no current plans to do so.
The company has previously said it had no plans to sell the U.S. assets and such a move would be impossible.
TikTok initially declined to comment. After publication of this story, TikTok in a posting on X said «The Reuters story published today is misleading and factually inaccurate,» without specifying what was inaccurate.
TikTok also posted a passage from its federal lawsuit: «the 'qualified divestiture' demanded by the Act to allow
