TikTok’s recommendation algorithm is being developed separately for its 170 million American users in response to growing political pressure in the US, according to a report by Reuters.
The source code split was ordered by ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, late last year, according to ssources. The effort started prior to Congress’s growing support for a measure that required TikTok’s U.S. company to be sold, which led to the law’s signing in April.
The sources suggested that TikTok’s U.S. assets could someday be divested thanks to the code separation; however, there are currently no plans for this to happen. TikTok has always insisted that it is neither planning nor viable to sell its U.S. assets.
TikTok said on X, formerly known as Twitter, after this news was published that “The Reuters story published today is misleading and factually inaccurate,” although it did not go into detail. Furthermore, TikTok cited its federal lawsuit, claiming that “it is just not possible—commercially, technologically, or legally—to carry out the ‘qualified divestiture’ required by the Act in order to for TikTok to continue functioning in the United States. And most definitely not in the 270 days that the Act requires.” In response, Reuters stood by what it had reported.
In May, TikTok and ByteDance filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court to block the law that mandates a sale or ban of the app by January 19. Recently, a U.S. appeals court established a fast-track schedule to address the legal challenges to this new law.
The intricate task of separating millions of lines of code involves hundreds of ByteDance and TikTok engineers in both the U.S. and China. Their mission is to create a code base for TikTok U.S. that operates independently of ByteDance’s Chinese version, Douyin, and excludes any links to Chinese users. This endeavor, described by sources as tedious “dirty work,” is expected to take over a year to complete.
The plan provides a glimpse into the technical separation process, highlighting TikTok’s efforts to mitigate bipartisan political risks. U.S. President Biden and other lawmakers argue that TikTok grants Beijing excessive access to data that could potentially be used for espionage or influence over U.S. users.
Reuters previously reported the improbability of selling TikTok along with its algorithms due to China’s 2020 export-control regulations on content recommendation algorithms. Any divestiture involving TikTok’s algorithm would require Chinese administrative licensing procedures.
Originally developed by ByteDance engineers in China, TikTok’s recommendation engine is tailored for its global markets, including the U.S. ByteDance credits the popularity of TikTok to this recommendation engine, which curates content feeds based on user interactions.
Despite the ongoing legal battle, engineers are continuing to work on disentangling TikTok’s U.S. recommendation engine from ByteDance’s broader network. An earlier initiative, Project Texas, which aimed to isolate U.S. user data, failed to satisfy U.S. regulators and lawmakers. Now, TikTok is intensifying efforts to demonstrate the independence of its U.S. operations from its Chinese parent.
At one point, TikTok executives considered open-sourcing parts of the algorithm to showcase technological transparency. Executives have communicated the progress and plans of the code-splitting project through team meetings, internal documents, and its communication platform, Lark.
The complexity of the separation process involves legal and compliance challenges, as each line of code must be scrutinized to determine its eligibility for the new code base. The ultimate goal is to establish a separate repository for a recommendation algorithm dedicated solely to TikTok U.S., which will operate independently from TikTok in other regions and Douyin.
However, this move poses a risk: TikTok U.S. might not maintain the same performance level as the current app, as it will lose access to the extensive engineering resources of its parent company in Beijing. Despite this risk, TikTok is committed to completing the code separation to address U.S. regulatory concerns.
