TikTok, a video platform of Chinese company ByteDance, has started moving US user data to the Oracle cloud platform.
According to The Verge, TikTok announced on its official blog on the 17th (local time) that it had decided to move to an Oracle server in the United States to eliminate concerns that the Chinese government could use information about American users.
TikTok emphasized that “100% of US user traffic will be moved to the Oracle Cloud.” In particular, TikTok added, “For the time being, we plan to use our servers in Virginia and Singapore for backup purposes, but we plan to dispose of them as soon as the previous work is finished.”
Storing data on Oracle’s infrastructure makes it inaccessible to parent company ByteDance, TikTok explained.
TikTok was under pressure to sell under former President Donald Trump. Former U.S. President Donald Trump has also issued an executive order to ban the use of TikTok in the U.S. App Store, arguing that TikTok poses a security threat.
At that time, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, suggested several ways to avoid this pressure. Among them, the most promising alternative was to use Oracle as a ‘reliable technology partner’.
Technical cooperation between the two companies has stalled somewhat since Joe Biden took office. Then in March, the project to move to Oracle server started again, The Verge reported.
In this situation, when reports came out that ByteDance’s Chinese headquarters were looking into TikTok US user information, it is believed that the two companies had formalized technical cooperation.
Despite these measures, concerns persist that TikTok could gain access to US user information.
