Report: TikTok’s efforts to silo US data are ‘largely cosmetic’
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Since 2022, TikTok has undertaken a massive, expensive effort to silo off its US operations — and American users’ data — from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. TikTok has described the corporate restructuring, which it dubbed Project Texas, as “an unprecedented initiative dedicated to making every American on TikTok feel safe, with confidence that their data is secure and the platform is free from outside influence.” Several former employees, however, told Fortune that Project Texas is instead “largely cosmetic” and that they and their colleagues continued to work closely with Beijing-based ByteDance executives after the plan’s implementation. One major aspect of Project Texas — so named because Oracle, TikTok’s “technology... Continue reading…
自2022年以来，TikTok一直在努力将其美国业务和美国用户的数据与其中国母公司字节跳动分离开来。然而，一些前员工告诉《财富》杂志，该计划实施后，他们和同事们仍然与总部位于北京的字节跳动高管密切合作。TikTok的美国用户数据并没有像它所声称的那样与中国母公司隔离开来。一些前员工表示，TikTok从未完全独立于字节跳动。这些声称可能会加剧国会要求字节跳动出售TikTok的努力。TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew一再强调公司与字节跳动的独立性。一些前员工表示，对TikTok与字节跳动的联系的担忧是夸大其词和根植于仇外心理。Project Texas和Project Clover在隔离美国和欧洲数据方面产生了“显著影响”。然而，这并不是第一份报告表明TikTok对Project Texas的描述夸大了TikTok在中国和美国的业务分离程度。《华尔街日报》在2023年1月的报道中称，Project Texas在2023年春季开始放宽一些数据共享规则。根据BuzzFeed News的报道，字节跳动中国员工曾多次访问美国用户数据，尽管大部分情况是为了限制中国员工访问美国数据的能力。
