Chinese Officials Say They Won’t Sell TikTok’s Algorithm to US

Checking in on the TikTok-U.S. saga, with over 200 days passed since the official, Senate-approved TikTok sell-off bill went into effect.

And things are not looking great, with the Chinese government reiterating that it has no intention of selling TikTok’s algorithmic black box as part of any U.S. partnership deal.

Via the state-media publication China Daily, the CCP says that the launch of an official White House TikTok account this week contradicts the focus of the sell-off bill, and the risks that the U.S. government is ostensibly seeking to protect against.

The White House launched its own TikTok channel on Monday, and has already posted several updates to the app.

Which has raised the ire of Chinese officials.

As per China Daily:

“That the White House now has its own TikTok account undoubtedly contradicts the ‘national security threat’ rhetoric that claims ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese government and that the app could be used to influence US citizens.”

That’s not entirely correct, as an official White House account in the app doesn’t reduce the potential impact that Chinese-backed operations could be having in seeking to influence the opinions of Western users via the app.

But nevertheless, the Chinese government has criticized the perceived hypocrisy of the White House presence, while also noting various other “unwarranted security threat” allegations against Chinese companies.

“The electronics companies Huawei and ZTE, as well as those related to shipbuilding and port equipment, have also been unjustifiably targeted. DJI, a Chinese drone maker, was put on the US government’s blacklist and then removed simply because its US clients could not find substitutes for its products.”

Again, this is somewhat subjective, as the broader threat that TikTok poses may be in both data collection, while also using TikTok to amplify pro-CCP content, in order to sway opinions in its favor. Trump and Co. posting a few videos won’t change this, with the Trump team merely seeing this as an opportunity to broadcast their message to younger audiences, and use the reach of TikTok to its benefit.

So really, it’s just more political propaganda in the app. But either way, the CCP has taken the opportunity to reiterate that it will not be selling TikTok with its algorithm any time soon.

“As Chinese foreign and commerce ministries’ spokespersons have said on different occasions, the operation and acquisition of enterprises should be based on market principles and decided independently by the enterprises concerned. If Chinese enterprises are involved, they must comply with Chinese laws and regulations. Notably, the Chinese authorities have issued a catalogue of technologies prohibited and restricted for export. This explicitly prohibits the export of core technologies such as short video algorithms, drawing a red line for the TikTok transaction.”

This has long been the CCP’s stance, that even if it is able to negotiate a deal to keep TikTok in operation in the U.S., it’s not selling the app’s core algorithm, which is the key driver of TikTok engagement.

Potential U.S. partners have been cautious in committing to a deal without the algorithm as a part of the package, while various alternatives have also been floated, including the possible development of a U.S. only version of the app, with a scaled-down algorithm based on the original (note: TikTok says that this is not happening).

Would that be as effective?

The key lure of TikTok is that it’s so good at learning what you’re interested in, every time that you log in, with your feed transforming before your eyes to better align with whatever catches your attention on a given day.

The secret sauce here is in-depth entity identification within video clips, with each of those elements then cross-matched against a wide variety of signals from the app’s billions of other users, both on TikTok and on Douyin, its Chinese sister app.

That incorporates a range of in-video details, and TikTok’s algorithm is seemingly much better at this process than Meta or other social media competitors.

As such, it makes sense that TikTok would want to keep those details in-house, and away from others in the market. And at the same time, I suspect that TikTok’s entity matching may include some identifiers that would be considered less acceptable under review, including notes on creators’ physical traits.

So there are several reasons why TikTok would want to keep this information secret, and away from U.S. ownership. And if the Chinese government sticks to this stance, it could mean that TikTok is indeed on a path to being banned in the U.S.

Indeed, last month, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed that the U.S. government will take a stand, and will be looking to implement a full ban TikTok on the app if a deal for its sale to a U.S. entity cannot be finalized by the current September 17th deadline.

So we could be on a collision course, if both sides stick to their guns this time.