Loading
It’s too early to know exactly what retraining the TikTok algorithm would look like, but Tom Sulston, head of policy at Digital Rights Watch, said that, because the social media app is ultimately a profit-driven business, users could expect attention-maximising content with an eye to flogging products, services and trends.
“It’s about clicks, eyeballs, and money,” he said. “I don’t think there’s someone sitting in a control room thinking how do we drum up the capitalism or communism dials, it’s more about how to we drum up the attention dials,” Sulston said.
Trump did mention, when announcing the deal on Thursday, that he would personally like Make America Great Again (MAGA) content to be prioritised on the platform. But he also added that the new TikTok would not be manipulated in that way. “Every group will be treated fairly,” Trump said.
How much power do the Murdochs have on TikTok
It’s difficult to tell how the Murdochs would shape the direction the new TikTok takes, but the deal installs them in a position of influence at a powerful media channel. TikTok has over a billion users globally, with more than 170 million of them in the US and almost 9 million in Australia.
Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch would have a say in how to best use TikTok to potentially aid their media empire. Credit: Bloomberg
The consortium that will run TikTok is being led by Oracle’s Ellison and, apart from the Murdochs, also includes Michael Dell, chief executive of computer company Dell; investment firm Silver Lake Partners; and United Arab Emirates-owned investment firm MGX. According to Bloomberg, Oracle, Silverlake and MGX could each take a roughly 15 per cent stake.
The US-owned TikTok will be led by a seven-person board of directors, comprising national and cybersecurity experts. The White House has said six of the board members will be Americans. ByteDance will be able to choose one board appointment.
So rather than exercising full control, Rupert and Lachlan would have a seat at the table and a say in how to best use TikTok to potentially aid the Murdoch media empire.
Loading
So what will change for TikTok users? Will it be safer?
Sulston believes the overall user experience will remain largely the same, with the algorithm geared to deliver engrossing content because it will still be driven by a user’s individual data and internet history.
“Users were already getting surveilled through the app and followed around the internet so that the algorithm can target content and ads at them. That’s unlikely to change because that’s how social media companies make money”.
As for security, storing the data of US users at home does remove the risk of Chinese authorities accessing sensitive personal information. But it doesn’t deliver real peace of mind for Australian users, because the big US technology platforms also siphon a lot of personal user data.
Sulston pointed to the US-based Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, as an indication of how, despite coming under new ownership and away from China, the app would most likely be driven by commercial, and not political, decisions.
Extreme content will most likely continue to loom large, less as intentional propaganda but more because it gets attention, Sulston said. “Misinformation and hateful content is engaging … it sucks you in,” he said.
TikTok has always come under fire from US legislators, amid claims it represents a national security risk.Credit: AP
“[The new TikTok] will still be a big company; they’re going to be driven by users, ads and money.”
Will Australians have to use the new US TikTok?
Yes. Reports during earlier stages of the US-China negotiations were that a deal could pave the way for a satellite US-only version TikTok for American users while the rest of the world continues under the existing platform.
However, the new version of TikTok announced by Trump is for the company to remain a single, global platform, transitioning away from Chinese ownership to become controlled by a grouping of US businesses.
What happens from here?
The deal for a new TikTok is not quite done. Chinese officials still have to sign off on the plan.
Additionally, the executive order signed by Trump was largely a structure for a path forward. The specifics of the business deal, to be worked out by the consortium of large US companies and ByteDance, will most likely take some time, before it is formalised, at which point control of the app can begin to be shifted to the US.
