The past five years has been a hell of a ride for TikTok in the United States. The first Trump administration wanted to ban it over privacy and security concerns, but failed. Then, towards the end of his term, President Biden signed a law banning the app, before the second Trump administration swooped in to block the ban under legally dubious means. To TikTok's hundreds of millions of users in the U.S. though, the app's continued presence is simply good news.
But that continued presence isn't guaranteed. While Trump continues to delay enforcing the ban, the law is clear that ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, must sell its stake in the app to an American-based company. Trump told Fox News at the end of June that the administration had found a buyer for the app, and it was up to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to agree to the deal—but it wasn't clear at the time who the buyer was.
New reporting from The Information over the holiday weekend suggests that buyer is potential multiple "non-Chinese" parties, including Oracle. Under the reported deal, ByteDance would still have some investment in the app, but not a majority stake. But as important as the issue of who buys TikTok is, there was something else in The Information's reporting that was surprising, and could potentially directly affect TikTok users in the U.S.—TikTok might be building a brand new American app altogether.
TikTok to M2
The Information (as summarized by The Verge) reports that TikTok's developers are currently building "M2," a version of TikTok specifically made for the U.S. The name comes from TikTok's internal designation, "M," which tells me that the app won't actually be called M2 when it launches. My vote is for TikTok (America's Version).
According to The Information, the app already has a set release date: Sept. 5. (TikTok currently has until Sept. 17 to sell, per Trump's latest delay.) That means in fewer than two months, the TikTok app as you know it could be old news, replaced by this new product. That's the catch here: If the reporting is accurate, your TikTok app won't simply update to M2 come Sept. 5. Instead, you'd need to manually download M2 to your devices, as it's a separate piece of software altogether. It's kind of messy.
The original TikTok app will disappear from app stores after that time, but the app won't stop working until next year—March 2026, to be precise. That means you'd have some time before needing to switch over to M2, assuming you have the original app on your phone.
Again, this is early days. The Information doesn't name its sources, and as the app hasn't officially sold to anyone yet, this could all change at any time. That said, let's assume this is the plan. There are still some details we do not know: Is M2 effectively the same app as TikTok, algorithm and all? Will users simply need to log in with their existing accounts and find the same experience they're used to? Or will M2 come with a new platform and algorithm, and force users to rebuild their TikTok experience? My guess would be the former, but anything's possible.
from News https://ift.tt/LXdpklD
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment