Would TikTok nonetheless be TikTok if it didn’t have its all-recognizing algorithm feeding you far more and far more of the content material that you want to watch each time you log in?

That could be a crucial query of the subsequent stage for the app, as it performs to come up with options to stay in operation in the U.S., following the U.S. Senate voted to force TikTok to be sold into U.S. ownership, or face a national ban, due to national safety issues.

Chinese officials have reportedly currently vetoed any prospective sale of its algorithmic code, below China’s revised export-manage rules, which stipulate that any sale involving its supply code would demand Government approval.

Which indicates that a sale of TikTok as we know is unlikely, and now, according to reports, TikTok’s owner ByteDance is functioning to come up with a different proposal.

As reported by Reuters:

“TikTok is functioning on a clone of its recommendation algorithm for its 170 million U.S. customers that may well outcome in a version that operates independently of its Chinese parent and be far more palatable to American lawmakers who want to ban it, according to sources with direct information of the efforts.”

According to the report, TikTok has been functioning on this option feed algorithm for far more than a year, which was initially slated to be portion of its broader “Project Texas” initiative made to appease U.S. authorities.

Which may well be a different path to TikTok remaining in operation in America, even though I stay skeptical that it is even achievable to replicate TikTok’s algorithms in any lesser kind, provided the different parameters are qualifiers that are constructed into its technique.

However, at the similar time, if any U.S. firm was in a position to invest in the complete app, algorithms and all, that could also be problematic, and lead to additional queries and issues from U.S. authorities.

Back in 2020, an investigation discovered that TikTok had been advising its moderation teams to suppress uploads from customers with physical “flaws” which includes “abnormal physique shapes,” “ugly facial appears,” dwarfism, and “obvious beer belly,” amongst other traits.

As reported by The Intercept:

“A single moderation document outlining physical characteristics, bodily and environmental components deemed as well unattractive spells out a litany of flaws that could be grounds for invisibly barring a provided clip from the “For You” section of the app. The document reveals that uploads by unattractive, poor, or otherwise undesirable customers could “decrease the quick-term new user retention price.”

Wrinkles, eye issues and different other “low quality” physical issues have been integrated in the censorship list, as nicely as videos made in poor shooting environments, like “slummy” style housing and “disreputable decorations.”

TikTok management has repeatedly stated that these qualifiers have been under no circumstances made use of on TikTok itself, and had only ever been implemented in the Chinese version of the app, referred to as Douyin. The advisory notes have been merely ported more than as templates, as portion of TikTok’s worldwide expansion, but a larger concern that was largely overlooked at the time is that TikTok’s moderation group was only ever in a position to reject clips that depicted men and women who had these traits was mainly because its visual identification procedure is so sophisticated that it is in a position to highlight uploads in which such components are potentially present in the initially location.

At 750 million customers, there’s no way that Douyin’s moderation group would be in a position to filter each video upload in order to detect and reject these that fail on these parameters. The only helpful procedure for removing videos that incorporate these traits is through TikTok’s visual ID technique, which points to the reality that a crucial element of TikTok’s addictive technique algorithm is that it is in a position to determine quite particular physical traits of men and women in clips, along with other components, in order to show you far more of what you like.

Which is a concern, for a lot of motives.

If TikTok knows, for instance, that you watched a video of a young, blonde girl with blue eyes dancing, it’ll show you far more of that, down to far more specifics than you most likely anticipate.

If it knows you like chunky guys with dark hair, guess what you will get shown far more of? If it knows that you like seeing naked hips, you will get far more of that.

The depths of TikTok’s content material matching, primarily based on a broad variety of visual traits, along with the normal text and subject cues, is why it is so compelling, but it is also why any individual taking on that algorithm requirements to be conscious that such particular matching will most likely not be viewed favorably by U.S. authorities.

TikTok has seemingly watered this down more than time, when on Douyin, the Chinese Government also now plays a part in deciding what gains traction in the app.

But there is a cause why TikTok’s algorithmic matching is so compelling, far more so than U.S. apps. And I’m not certain that men and women truly want to comprehend the actual answers.

Which is also why a U.S.-only version of its algorithm will not operate, and would see TikTok drop ground quite speedy, if it is forced to enact a far far more sanitized version of its systematic procedure.

It may well be null and void either way, mainly because what I’m hearing from observers in China is that the forced TikTok sale has turn into a point of national pride, with the Chinese government opposing what it sees as overreach by U.S. authorities.

As such, it appears increasingly most likely that they’ll refuse any compromise, which will imply that, as of January subsequent year, TikTok will be switched off for U.S. customers.  

So when discussions will continue on options, it may well come down to international diplomacy, and a stand off amongst worldwide superpowers.

Yes, TikTok, the app that gained recognition on the back of viral dance trends, is now at the center of geopolitical tensions. What a time to be alive.