However President Xi Jinping probably gained’t see a average concession on tariffs as a win.
TikTok doesn’t even function in China, so Xi isn’t underneath any strain to please American customers. And state-backed media have been clear that China views this as a precedent-setting saga that might depart different firms open to US “plunder”.
TRUMP HAS DELEGITIMISED NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS
Earlier, the important thing query was: “What is going to it take for Beijing to let TikTok go?” Now, we additionally want to fret about what it’ll take for Trump to let it go.
And by obfuscating the nationwide safety considerations to advance his tariff agenda, he has delegitimised them.
Whereas all of the last-minute purchaser drama spurred intrigue, it’s price questioning if any of it will fulfil the objective of preserving American social media customers secure.
A situation the place ByteDance maintains management over the algorithm could ease some information assortment and spying considerations, however appears to carry us again to the place we began over fears of algorithm infiltration. And punting the deadline additional doesn’t handle these points, both.
Whereas ByteDance has been mum on the TikTok drama, its Chinese language sister app, Douyin, has been within the information at dwelling after native regulators pressured the corporate to supply the general public rather more readability on how the app recommends and moderates content material. In a not too long ago launched web site, Douyin says that it doesn’t spy on customers and provided extra transparency into how its algorithm tracks behaviour to serve content material.