TikTok Will Never Be The Same, Sale or No Sale

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The end of TikTok has begun. As the dust settles from a week of shockingly fast legislative action by the US Congress, it’s clear that TikTok next year will look much different from the TikTok we’re using today.

A nightmare that has plagued TikTok for more than four years came to life on Wednesday when President Joe Biden approved a $95 billion aid package to overseas countries. The United States will impose a nationwide app ban on TikTok if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, refuses to sell its ownership position in the company. TikTok has 270 days from the date of signing to find a new owner. (As Cristiano Lima-Strong of The Washington Post pointed out, TikTok’s time limit expires the day before the 2025 Inauguration.)

There are several possible outcomes for this. A private equity firm or American business might purchase TikTok and its potent recommendation engine. Or, a buyer might have to accept just the bones of the platform without that algorithmic muscle; The Information reported on Thursday that ByteDance has already started gaming out what a sale without the algorithm would look like. Alternatively, maybe TikTok falls bust and no buyer is found.

All the possible outcomes point to a drastically altered app, barring TikTok or a horde of its users from winning a lawsuit against the law enacted this week, which the business has already stated it intends to bring.

In the unlikely event that a US tech giant were to purchase the ByteDance software and algorithm, it is likely to incorporate the app into its own offerings. But I don’t think a “TikTok by Meta” will ever happen. In recent years, Meta and other tech behemoths have been subject to significant antitrust scrutiny. Concerns would be raised at the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission if a large social media business were to acquire one of its leading rivals.

Microsoft has expressed interest in purchasing TikTok, and it may be the only bidder that would make sense for the app. If not, LinkedIn is Microsoft’s largest subsidiary; can we honestly refer to LinkedIn as a competition to TikTok?

Separately, it might be challenging to reconstruct the core of the app if, for example, a private equity firm like Blackstone were to acquire TikTok without its highly sought-after algorithm. A business without a large pool of computational wizards at its disposal probably wouldn’t have the know-how to rapidly rebuild a social media platform based on feeds from the ground up. I doubt the outcome would be pleasing even if they tried.

What if there isn’t a new owner? All we have left, I suppose, are Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. Although Google and Meta were compelled to engage in vertical video due to TikTok’s prominence in the US, such platforms mostly target the younger “Skibidi Toilet” demographic. They would have difficulty occupying a void on the US internet akin to TikTok.

Still, the law passed this week may not stand for much longer. In a statement calling it unconstitutional, TikTok seemed confident that the law could be overturned. “We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail,” a TikTok spokesperson said on Wednesday. The company used a similar argument last year to win an injunction blocking a ban passed in Montana.

Whatever the outcome of this litigation, TikTok will not be the same. What exactly will be “different” is the question.

Contributor had a conversation with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in December at the app’s inaugural music event in Arizona. In that interview and others, Chew expresses his conviction that lawmakers’ misgivings about TikTok’s security will gradually fade.

Chew proved to be incorrect. However, TikTok released a video of Chew speaking to his users and pledging to keep investing in improving and securing the site even after Biden signed the measure requiring divestiture this week. I do wonder, however, whether that gentle optimism will morph into something more aggressive over the course of the next year as the new law’s deadline looms closer.

The Fox Daily : Have you thought that TikTok is unfairly targeted or subjected to more scrutiny as a result of its early history?

Shou Zi Chew: Definitely, in most cases. We have a greater trust deficit than most other companies, and I believe this to be one of the causes. Although we may not have the same level of trust as other businesses, I believe we have made real efforts to reduce the gap and win that trust.

I discussed this during the congressional hearing; as you are aware, all of this information is available to the public, and a project was developed to allay those worries. In fact, we took a long time to comprehend them. There were concerns about data security, there were concerns about transparency of our code. We have not only talked about it, we have actually put this into action. We built a project where we put all data into a third-party environment, through Oracle. It’s a setup that is unprecedented, and no other company that I know of has established this. If you’re fundamentally addressing all these concerns, then over time the trust will come.

Ben inquires, “What do you think is the appropriate approach to TikTok? If anything at all?

The truth is, I have no notion. Although I’m not an expert in data security or a First Amendment attorney, I don’t think those people have the answer either.

For a long time now, lawmakers have been trying to convince us all that TikTok is the boogeyman they’ve made it out to be. We’ve heard all of the worst case scenarios: that we’re actively being spied on by the Chinese Communist Party, or that the app is brainwashing America’s youth. While this all could be true, we haven’t received a speck of evidence proving any of these theories.

Yet even if lawmakers are blowing the issue out of proportion, I can understand why they’re spooked. I spoke with Senator Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, last year, shortly after he introduced his RESTRICT Act targeting TikTok. He was scared of a repeat of 2016, when US politicians and bureaucrats were caught unawares by the Russian disinformation proliferating across Meta platforms. They don’t want to see that happen again with China and TikTok this election cycle.

However, these theoretical arguments don’t seem strong enough to support a complete ban or divestiture. Before we look at actual solutions and whether they are necessary at all, the intelligence community should release at least a small amount of information.

Questions can be sent to thefoxdailynews@gmail.com. In the subject line, type ASK LEVY.

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