However, Trump seems to think that old Tiktok partner Oracle is taking a greater interest while using the user data of Americans in his facilities in Texas, will be sufficient to prevent the remaining owners who will retain less than 20 percent interest of alleged spy, launch of disinformation campaigns or other types of propaganda.
China was previously resistant to a forced sale of Tiktok, FT reported, even so far that they placed export controls on algorithms to keep the most lucrative part of Tiktok in the country. And “It remains unclear to what extent the Chinese parent of Tiktok would keep control of the algorithm in the US as part of a license deal,” FT noted.
On Tuesday, Wang Jingtao, deputy head of the Chinese cyber security regulator, did not go into detail about how the access of China to American user data under the deal would be limited. Instead, Wang only noted that Bytedance would “entrust the operation of the US user data and content protection of Tiktok,” FT probably reported to American owners.
An investor established in Asia told FT that the US would “at least part of the Chinese algorithm” use, but training on American user data, while an American adviser accused Trump of chickens and accepting a deal that did not force the algorithm sale.
“After all this, China retains the algorithm,” said the American adviser.
For the investor established in Asia, it seemed that Trump gave China exactly what it wants, because “Beijing is seen as an export of Chinese technology to the US and the world.”
It is likely that more details will be announced as soon as Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a telephone conference on Friday. Bytedance does not yet have to comment on the deal and has not responded to Ars' request to comment.
