ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, is working on a clone of its recommendation algorithm that will be used for 170 million users in the United States and will work independently of the Chinese version. Reuters reports this with reference to sources.
ByteDance hopes to create a version of the social network that will be more acceptable to US lawmakers who want to ban TikTok if it is not sold within a year. As a reminder, U.S. President Joe Biden has already signed the relevant law.
It is reported that ByteDance started working on code separation at the end of last year, before the law on blocking the social network was signed.
Reuters sources say that when the code is divided, it could become the basis for the alienation of US assets, although there are no such plans yet. The day before, ByteDance said that a sale of the company is highly unlikely.
In response to the Reuters story, the official TikTok Policy account in X wrote a message:
"The Reuters story published today is misleading and factually inaccurate. As we said in our court filing, the '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," the post says.
Despite the statement in X, Reuters representatives continue to insist that their information is true.