ByteDance would rather close down TikTok in the US than sell it if it fails to fight potential US ban in court

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Business Insider

Apr 27, 2024, 12:58 PM EDT


ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, would rather close down TikTok in the US than sell it if legal means to fight a proposed US ban fail, Reuters reported, citing four unnamed sources.

A sale is unlikely as the algorithms powering the short-video app are key to ByteDance's overall operations, the sources told Reuters, also noting that TikTok made up only a small part of the company's total revenues and active users.

Closing down the app would, therefore, limit the impact on ByteDance's business and allow it to retain control of its algorithm, they said.

President Joe Biden recently signed into law legislation that would see TikTok banned in the US unless ByteDance divests itself of the app over the next nine months to a year. The move stems from fears among US lawmakers that China could use the app for surveillance activities and to gather data on US citizens.

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/bytedance-rather-close-down-tiktok-us-than-sell-report-2024

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Full headline: ByteDance would rather close down TikTok in the US than sell it if it fails to fight potential US ban in court, report says

[JoseBalow]

1. What does "close down" mean?

Not fight removal from some app stores?

I already access TikTok through a VPN, so it wouldn't affect me at all, beyond possibly losing some followers and friends. I suspect that work-around tutorials will flood FB and Xitter and Reddit and elsewhere, resulting in only the most technically inept and lazy to be inconvenienced.

I am always fascinated and amused by efforts to control the internet... What a long strange trip it's been.

[Steven Maurer]

2. Remain Chinese-owned, just not available in the US

...would be my guess.

Basically what happened when China did the exact same thing to Google.

[hunter]

7. Is the U.S.A. going to build a "Great Wall" around its internet as China has?

Last edited Sun Apr 28, 2024, 12:22 AM - Edit history (1)

Are we going to arrest U.S. citizens who continue to use TikTok?

I think this is a ridiculous bit of political theater.

Mind you, the only "social media" I subscribe to is DemocraticUnderground. I don't even have a "smart" phone. So it's possible I don't understand social media at all.

I do know that actually fixing this problem would require strict privacy laws that apply to ALL the social media pigs, including Facebook, Google, X, etc..

It's much easier, politically, to single out China.

[Steven Maurer]

8. I doubt it would go like that...

...but it would be trivially easy for ISPs to refuse to handle traffic from their overseas servers. You would still be able to connect to them using a VPN, but most people won't bother.

I expect that all that will happen will be that people will switch over to YouTube shorts. It's the same basic functionality, if a bit less prurient than some big-chested 18 year old girl in a bikini jumping up and down on a beach for 1.5 million "likes", which is TikTok's usual content.

Not a big loss either way.

[hunter]

9. People are invested in TikTok, as they are in Twitter.

Twitter hasn't gone away here on DU, no matter that people despise Elon Musk.

TikTok users may find it's "broken" one day, they'll find easy instructions for "fixing" it, and life will go on as usual.

Politicians will pretend they've accomplished something and nobody's going to waste time and money playing whack-a-mole with VPNs which may or may not have connections to ByteDance.

Or maybe there will be some agreement where ByteDance agrees to play nice and business goes on as usual.

This is still a negotiation.

[Steven Maurer]

18. Twitter hasn't been outlawed, like TikTok has

And it is quite unlikely that many will go for a "fix" when:

1) It costs $5 a month, bare minimum

2) It increases data usage anywhere from 4% to 20%

3) TikTok isn't tailoring any content towards them anymore, because US content providers aren't being paid for it

India already outlawed TikTok, and the company is just dead gone from that country. They have absolutely zero incentive to cater to Indian markets because no Indian advertiser can pay them money to put their ads on that platform.

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The only way TikTok remains in the US is if the courts rule the law to be an unconstitutional Bill of Attainder.

[The Grand Illuminist]

17. That brings up a thought...

Is DU a social media outlet?

[Shermanator]

3. If the app is banned

In the US and other Western countries, the app won't be the same and the content will drastically change.

[JoseBalow]

5. That is not correct

[madville]

13. Correct

Most US users will not jump through the technological hoops to stay on it. Many of the US content creators will also abandon it since they will no longer be receiving revenue from it.

Something else will fill the void left, always does.

[madville]

12. "Only the most technically inept and lazy"

Majority of people will not jump over any hurdles and will move on to something else to replace it. Instagram, FaceBook Reels, Snap and YouTube Shorts will fill the void for many of the casual users. Maybe 10-20% of the current users would figure out the workarounds.

The larger impact would be the US content creators jumping ship when they aren’t receiving revenue from TikTok anymore, they’ll focus on other available platforms and their dedicated subscribers will follow.

[Avalon Sparks]

14. The language of the bill

The bill includes broad mitigation measures that allows for fines and jail time for accessing with a VPN or even when in another country.

[cstanleytech]

4. Personally I think the stance by the US over this is simply absurd as it's little more than a messaging app.

Not that I would shed a tear if it was banned but that's because I don't use TikTok.

[Earth-shine]

6. I find it hard to believe that the geniuses at Google and MicroSoft can't figure out or approximate the TicToc algorithm

[AZLD4Candidate]

10. Of course the CCP would do that. The CCP doesn't want to give up his PsyOp App to anyone

Take your spyware PsyOp, CCP, and go to hell. You've banned TikTok in China.

[LuvLoogie]

11. This is going to be like as if the Dems cut social security

Fools

[jgmiller]

15. It's really fascinating how many different takes there on this even on DU

I personally agree that this is all overblown however there are people I respect who really feel this is a serious national security risk and it shocks me that they are very liberal and never jump on the "China is coming for us" bandwagon.

Someone on this thread commented that they don't get why Google or Meta couldn't come up with the same algorithm. I don't doubt they could, I've read quite a few detailed analysis and most people think it's a very, very simple engagement algorithm. The problem is not duplicating it, the problem is duplicating the viral nature of it.

Look at Twitter, even though Musk has destroyed it, it still gets an enormous amount of use yet there are better alternatives. Meta released Threads which is pretty much a clone, nobody uses it. BlueSky just became public a few months ago and it is a clone of Twitter written by engineers that escaped Twitter and nobody uses it. Its very hard to force people to move to something else in the social media world, these things have their own gravity and gain momentum naturally.

[BumRushDaShow]

16. "Threads which is pretty much a clone, nobody uses it"

I saw a recent article that there were something like 150 million monthly accounts, so it is picking up - https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/24/mark-zuckerberg-says-threads-has-150-million-monthly-active-users/

And I think because of that, I am seeing a huge uptick of people referencing a presence on Instagram after a long lull of mentions when I suppose people moved over to TikTok. But that is probably pushing the uptick in Threads, as the 2 are linked (as well as linked to Facebook).

Some of the people who very publicly used Mastodon early on (e.g., George Takei), have apparently shifted to Threads.