March 13, 2024 - In Breaking News - The New York Times In a capital where Republicans and Democrats agree on virtually nothing, it was notable when the House overwhelmingly declared on Wednesday that TikTok poses such a grave risk to national security that it must be forced to sell its U.S. operations to a non-Chinese owner.
That glosses over the deeper TikTok security problem, which the legislation does not fully address.
In the four years this battle has gone on, it has become clear that the security threat posed by TikTok has far less to do with who owns it than it does with who writes the code and algorithms that make TikTok tick.
Those algorithms, which guide how TikTok watches its users and feeds them more of what they want, are the magic sauce of an app that 170 million Americans now have on their phones.
TikTok doesn't own those algorithms; they are developed by engineers who work for its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, which assembles the code in great secrecy in its software labs, in Beijing, Singapore, and Mountain View, Calif. But China has issued regulations that appear designed to require government review before any of ByteDance's algorithms could be licensed to outsiders.
Few expect those licenses to be issued - meaning that selling TikTok to an American owner without the underlying code might be like selling a Ferrari without its famed engine.
American-based company would have to develop its own, made-in-America algorithm.
A version of TikTok without its classic algorithm might quickly become useless to users and worthless to investors.
It is all part of a broader standoff between the world's two most powerful technology superpowers.
The sparring plays out every day Continue reading TikTok's Security Threats Go Beyond the Scope of House Legislation.
This Cyber News was published on americansecuritytoday.com. Publication date: Thu, 14 Mar 2024 21:13:05 +0000