Slashdot: New Chinese Restrictions on Tech Exports Could Complicate TikTok Sale

New Chinese Restrictions on Tech Exports Could Complicate TikTok Sale
Published on September 01, 2020 at 02:11AM
New export controls on technologies that Beijing deems sensitive are threatening to derail efforts by American companies to acquire TikTok's U.S. operations from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, the Wall Street Journal reports. From a report: The regulations were unveiled on Friday and prevent "technology based on data analysis for personalized information recommendation services" -- which would likely apply to TikTok's AI content-recommendation engine -- from being exported without a license, according to the New York Times. On Saturday, the Chinese state-owned Xinhua News Agency published commentary from a trade professor and government adviser suggesting that ByteDance "seriously and cautiously" consider whether to suspend TikTok negotiations after reviewing the new rules. The state-owned English-language newspaper Global Times published a similar story quoting Chinese experts as saying the restrictions could help ByteDance "prevent its core algorithms used in video-sharing app TikTok from falling into US companies' hands."

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