For subscribers
TikTok’s sale: There is no ‘one ring to rule them all’
America may soon own TikTok but not what really matters: the algorithm that decides what we watch, think and share.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
American ownership of an algorithm such as TikTok's does not make it more “democratic”, just differently biased according to a different dataset and value system.
REUTERS
Simon Chesterman and Chen Tsuhan
Follow topic:
When the United States ordered TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest its American operations or face a ban, it was framed as a national security issue. The concern was that the Chinese authorities could use the platform’s data – or its mysterious “algorithm” – to shape what hundreds of millions of users see and think.
But what exactly is being sold
