TikTok is reportedly close to finalizing a deal with Oracle that would see the short-form video platform store the data of its US users without providing access to Chinese parent company ByteDance. As first reported Reutersa dedicated team of cybersecurity engineers and workers would act as a gatekeeper for US user data and would likely not be under TikTok’s oversight.
According to a report from BuzzFeed News, the deal is known internally on TikTok as “Project Texas,” a reference to Oracle’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. The company will implement new controls that restrict access to data for US users, which it will then recreate in Europe. BuzzFeed informed. But BuzzFeed says it has yet to be decided how much access the company’s Chinese managers will have to the data and the US-based team.
The stalled deal, first announced under former President Trump, was put together after Trump ordered what amounted to a ban on TikTok, citing concerns about the availability of US user data to the Chinese government. Oracle would become a “trusted technology partner” for TikTok in the US In addition to Trump’s order, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) formally tidy parent company ByteDance to get rid of operations in the US
TikTok appealed both orders. A judge ruled in December 2020 that the Trump administration had exceeded its authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and granted TikTok a preliminary injunction. The deal seemed almost dead:supposedly “archived indefinitely”— after President Biden took office.
Reuters reported, citing sources, that Oracle would store all data of US TikTok users on its servers as part of the proposed deal. However, it is not clear how such an agreement would affect the previous CFIUS order.
TikTok and Oracle did not respond to requests for comment from The edge.