TikTok is trying to separate its US operations from copying its core algorithm.
According to sources from Reuters, TikTok is urgently developing an independent version of its content recommendation algorithm specifically for the US market. This move is considered the company's effort to allay national security concerns from the US government, thereby avoiding the risk of being banned from operations.
According to the plan, TikTok America will operate and maintain the recommendation algorithm independently from other versions of TikTok globally, including the Douyin version in China. This means that TikTok America will no longer depend on technical support from ByteDance, TikTok's parent company in China.
TikTok decided to separate the core algorithm in the US.
However, separating the recommendation algorithm also poses many risks, especially the possibility of reducing the performance of TikTok US due to lack of support from ByteDance engineers.
This source code separation project was launched by ByteDance at the end of last year, before the bill to "divest or ban" TikTok was passed in April. Although TikTok has repeatedly affirmed that the sale of assets in the US is impossible, but decoupling the algorithm could be the first step towards making this happen.
However, this project is not simple, requiring hundreds of engineers to review and separate millions of lines of code. It is expected that this process will take more than a year to complete.
This is an unprecedented move by TikTok, showing the company's efforts to allay concerns about national security and continue operating in the US market. However, whether these efforts are enough to convince the US government is still a big question.
