Even the the TikTok ban bill has been passed into law, the issue is far from over. The social media giant is already fighting the ban with a lawsuit and will have until the divestment deadline to win it. It has also disputed rumors about the potential solution to the ultimatum of the US government.
TikTok Clarifies Source Code Split Rumor
Reports floated the idea that TikTok is working on a way to split its source code to allow for a US-only recommendation algorithm. To add to that, it is said that the company has been working on it since last year, but this turned out to be false.
The independent recommendation algorithm could potentially assuage the growing suspicion of the US government that not only is TikTok being used to monitor US citizens, but the Chinese government is also using it to spread propaganda.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. TikTok responded to the reports saying that the story published is "misleading and factually inaccurate." The X post also mentioned that what others claim TikTok was doing was not possible.
"[T[]he 'qualified divestiture' demanded by the Act to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally. And certainly not on the 270-day timeline required by the Act."
TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes told The Verge: "While we have continued work in good faith to further safeguard the authenticity of the TikTok experience, it is simply false to suggest that this work would facilitate divestiture or that divestiture is even a possibility."
With this news, it means that TikTok's sole way of keeping the app from being banned in the US is to win its lawsuit in court. Otherwise, the app would be gone once the deadline arrives, which is by January 19th next year.
There's Still the Option of Selling
TikTok has already tried separating US data from its parent company ByteDance through Project Texas, which addresses risks such as data access by the Chinese government and content distribution, but that obviously did not pan out the way TikTok had hoped.
If the company cannot or continues to refuse to separate the recommendation algorithm for the US, then it might have to resort to selling the US business to an American company or individual. However, ByteDance is not too happy about that option as well.
It already said that it "doesn't have any plans to sell TikTok" in its official Toutiao account, which is a social media platform owned by the parent company, as per BBC. That again leaves the company giant with the lawsuit, which they will have no other choice but to win.
If not, then TikTok will eventually be banned from the US, which will surely have a huge effect considering how big the platform has gotten over the years. For one, it has been used for business and work by many content creators and SMBs. There are even those who only operate within the social media platform.
