Web Desk 
May 31, 2024
TikTok, the short-form video platform, media giant presently embroiled in a legal battle with the US government, may be working on a clone of its Chinese self, curating a more amenable version for its 170 million strong American userbase.
Citing sources privy to the matter, a Reuters report has revealed that work on the cloning effort began late last year, preceding this year’s decision by the US government to try and have the application forcibly sold.
While nothing, at the moment, in this regard has officially been confirmed by the company, the code could pave the way for a divestiture of the company's US assets once split.
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Earlier, the company had severely downplayed the possibility of such a venture, clarifying that it had no such plans, nor would such a move be possible.
While refusing to comment on the Reuters report, the video streaming giant stated in a post on X (formerly Twitter),, “The Reuters story published today is misleading and factually inaccurate,” without specifying the supposed errors.
In a piece of its Federal Lawsuit, the company said, “The 'qualified divestiture' demanded by the Act to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States is simply not possible”.
It must be noted that parent company, ByteDance, lodged a petition against the US government earlier this month to stall its efforts to have the application banned.
Reports suggest that ByteDance has ordered its American and Chinese engineers to begin separating the code responsible for its recommendation algorithm, curating a separate version for its US market and, as a result, burning all links with its native Chinese self, Douyin.
