‘TOK’ OF THE TOWN
China exit rumors
TikTok has been quietly telling advertisers it is exploring a possible move out of China and may even consider a spinoff from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance, The Post has learned.
TikTok execs have hinted at the move as the company’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party are once again raising US national security concerns, sources told The Post.
Rumors say TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, installed last May, may relocate TikTok to Singapore, his birthplace, where he has returned.
As part of the move, TikTok could also look to formally spin out of ByteDance and become its own company, according to the speculation.
Security concerns were also discussed last week at the annual Cannes Lions festival, where ad buyers descended on the French Riviera to meet with major tech companies including Meta and Google, sources told The Post.
TikTok — which made its debut at the event — is expected to triple its ad revenue this year from $3.8 billion in 2021 to $11.6 billion in 2022, according to reports.
Insiders said it’s unclear if the move will really happen or if TikTok execs were merely circulating talking points to juice ad sales.
TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.
On Tuesday, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr released a letter he wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai asking companies to remove TikTok from the App Store over security concerns.
‘Surveillance tool’
“At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data,” Carr said.
In the letter posted to Twitter, Carr wrote that TikTok’s fun videos are merely the Chinese government acting as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Carr’s move follows an explosive Buzzfeed report that revealed recorded conversations with TikTok US executives saying China “had access to everything” and “everything is seen in China.”
A spokesman for TikTok, the short video platform with more than 1 billion global users, dismissed the Buzzfeed report, claiming, “As we’ve publicly stated, we’ve brought in worldclass internal and external security experts to help us strengthen our data security efforts.”