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TikTok CEO details its Oracle-run Project Texas plan for data localisation

  • Two years ago several US-based companies looked to acquire TikTok as more probes surfaced regarding the platforms ties to the Chinese government.
  • While no company ended up buying TikTok, Oracle was chosen to secure its data and cloud businesses.
  • Now TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew, explained how Oracle will be moving its data to a new location in Texas.

Two years ago the future of TikTok was far more uncertain than it is today, with the Trump administration laying down an ultimatum that the wildly popular short-format video platform needed to be owned by a US company.

A handful of bids surfaced, but none of them stuck, with Oracle only securing the data and cloud infrastructure of the ByteDance-owned business.

Questions over its ties to the Chinese government persist, particularly as it pertains to the handling of data on US citizens, which TikTok time and again has refuted in terms of letting prying eyes get access to.

Now TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew, has detailed how TikTok plans to handle the location and storing of its data in an operation called Project Texas. The details were shared during an interview at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit.

Rather plainly, Project Texas will involve Oracle moving US-specific data, which currently resides in Virginia and Singapore, to Texas.

No specific timeframe has been mentioned by Chew, but he did note that it is an expensive endeavour, adding that the necessary infrastructure is, “expensive to build, and it’s challenging to do it, but we are doing it to address these concerns.”

“We are ahead of the curve on data localisation. No company organises data like this,” he added.

As The Verge reports, Chew also spoke about the concerns regarding Chinese interference in the operations of TikTok. Here he pointed out that work is already on the go to address any concerns and hopefully lay these issues to rest.

“We take all these concerns seriously, we study them, we have been working with (the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) to solve what we think is a very solvable problem,” he noted.

“No foreign government has asked us for user data before, and if they did we would say no,” he affirmed.

Whether that will be enough to appease American politicians remains to be seen, but it is clear that TikTok wants to play ball if it wishes to continue operating in the US, which is easily one of its most important markets.

Chew also spoke about some of the issues that are plaguing the platform, highlighting the moderation of content that would be unsuitable for younger users.

“We have a responsibility to invest more to make sure that any trends and content not suitable for young people is moderated off the platform,” he said in reference to the importance of trust and safety when questioned about the current developments at Twitter.

As TikTok prepares to ensure that its data practices keep regulators and policy makers in the US happy, it will be interesting to see if other Chinese firms follow suit. Either way, it looks like Project Texas is a go.

[Image – Photo by Enrique Macias on Unsplash]

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