The platform made the disclosure as part of its legal challenge against a law forcing its sale in the US.

TikTok says it offered the US government the power to shut the platform down in an attempt to address lawmakers’ data protection and national security concerns.

It disclosed the “kill switch” offer, which it made in 2022, as it began its legal fight against legislation that will ban the app in America unless Chinese parent company ByteDance sells it.

The law has been introduced because of concerns TikTok might share US user data with the Chinese government - claims it and ByteDance have always denied.

TikTok and ByteDance are urging the courts to strike the legislation down.

“This law is a radical departure from this country’s tradition of championing an open Internet, and sets a dangerous precedent allowing the political branches to target a disfavored speech platform and force it to sell or be shut down,” they argued in their legal submission.

They also claimed the US government refused to engage in any serious settlement talks after 2022, and pointed to the “kill switch” offer as evidence of the lengths they had been prepared to go.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    2015·
    5 months ago

    The government is so fucking stupid sometimes. I think both ideas are bad, but a kill switch would be so much better strategically than selling it to a third party who could just send the data to China anyway and still be influenced by CCP demands.

    • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      175·
      5 months ago

      I feel like from the beginig forcing sale was the goal so a US entity has a chance to pick up part of the number one social media for cheaepr than the open market because when a sale is forced sellers lose leverage.

      • Fades@lemmy.world
        1·
        5 months ago

        You seriously think this is simply a trick to obtain tiktok for a cheaper price?? who the fuck upvotes this shit?

    • Fades@lemmy.world
      1·
      5 months ago

      It’s not about sending the data to China it’s about not allowing a hostile power maintain control of a major lever that directly impacts a huge swath of the us demographics.

      Hate it or love it but TikTok algorithms hold an insane amount of power to influence a gigantic age range and the goal here is to get those in control of said algorithms under US law so it can be regulated properly.

      Yes, us bad, but there is logic and value here. No it’s not the perfect solution but we can’t do nothing either. TikTok showing oracle the source code doesn’t do shit to address these issues.

      https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/business/tiktok-china.html