The platform made the disclosure as part of its legal challenge against a law forcing its sale in the US.

TikTok says it offered the US government the power to shut the platform down in an attempt to address lawmakers’ data protection and national security concerns.

It disclosed the “kill switch” offer, which it made in 2022, as it began its legal fight against legislation that will ban the app in America unless Chinese parent company ByteDance sells it.

The law has been introduced because of concerns TikTok might share US user data with the Chinese government - claims it and ByteDance have always denied.

TikTok and ByteDance are urging the courts to strike the legislation down.

“This law is a radical departure from this country’s tradition of championing an open Internet, and sets a dangerous precedent allowing the political branches to target a disfavored speech platform and force it to sell or be shut down,” they argued in their legal submission.

They also claimed the US government refused to engage in any serious settlement talks after 2022, and pointed to the “kill switch” offer as evidence of the lengths they had been prepared to go.

  • dmtalon@infosec.pub
    64·
    6 months ago

    But a “kill switch” doesn’t address the issue. I mean while it’s “killed” it does but whenever it’s not, the data privacy concerns are in full swing.

    • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.world
      13·
      6 months ago

      Yes, good thing all our data is now perfectly private. No corporations sucking it up and selling it to databrokers who then launder it to the CCP. Now that tik tok is gone, our privacy is completely protected!

      • piecat@lemmy.world
        3·
        6 months ago

        Hell if it isn’t being sold, it’s being hacked. How many major data beaches have there been? My identity keeps getting stolen, accounts hacked. Did you know that entirely too many major CC companies will reset your account password and security question over the phone using data that is in those leaks?

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
        1·
        6 months ago

        This is like when people complain that measures directed to lessen global warming don’t solve it and say they’re useless.

      • HATEFISH@midwest.social
        30·
        6 months ago

        That’s largely irrelevant unless a gov employee is going to sit behind everyone with server access and make sure nothng is ever touched in an Unlogged unapproved way no?

        • edric@lemm.eeEnglish
          5·
          6 months ago

          Yeah, I remember reading an article that said the data wasn’t necessarily directly accessible by the mothership overseas, but there isn’t anything stopping employees from sending the info themselves, which IIRC is what happened.

      • dmtalon@infosec.pub
        2·
        6 months ago

        Whether true or not there are back doors , as there will always be no matter where it’s hosted. Unless we got access to the full source code .