TikTok preparing a US copy of the app’s core algorithm

 TikTok is working on a clone of its recommendation algorithm for its 170 million U.S. users that may result in a version that operates independently of its Chinese parent and be more palatable to American lawmakers who want to ban it, according to sources with direct knowledge of the efforts.

The work on splitting the source code ordered by TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance late last year predated a bill to force a sale of TikTok's U.S. operations that began gaining steam in Congress this year. The bill was signed into law in April.

The sources, who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the short-form video sharing app, said that once the code is split, it could lay the groundwork for a divestiture of the U.S. assets, although there are no current plans to do so.

TikTok declined to comment. The company has previously said it had no plans to sell the U.S. assets and such a move would be impossible.

TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance sued in U.S. federal court in May, seeking to block the law forcing a sale or ban of the app by Jan. 19. A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday set a fast-track schedule to consider the legal challenges to the new law.

MILLIONS OF LINES OF CODE

In the past few months, hundreds of ByteDance and TikTok engineers in both the U.S. and China were ordered to begin separating millions of lines of code, sifting through the company’s algorithm that pairs users with videos to their liking. The engineers’ mission is to create a separate code base that is independent of systems used by ByteDance’s Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, while eliminating any information linking to Chinese users, two sources with direct knowledge of the project told Reuters.

The previously unreported plan provides a rare look into what a technical separation of TikTok's U.S. operations could be like, and shows to what lengths TikTok will go to address the bipartisan political risk it faces. U.S. President Biden and other supporters of the law argue TikTok gives Beijing far too much access to reams of data, information that could be used to spy on or influence TikTok’s U.S. users.

Reuters previously reported that a sale of the app with algorithms is highly unlikely. The Chinese government in 2020 added content recommendation algorithms to its export-control list, requiring a divestiture or sale of TikTok's algorithm to go through its administrative licensing procedures.

The source code for TikTok’s recommendation engine was originally developed by ByteDance engineers in China, and customized for operations in TikTok’s various global markets, including the U.S., according to a legal filing.

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