Last week I reported per Reuters that TikTok is building a new version of its app for users in the U.S., internally known as “M2,” with plans to launch to app stores on September 5th, according to unnamed TikTok employees. Users would eventually have to download the new app to be able to continue using the service, but the existing app was scheduled to work until March of next year.
Several days after the news circulated, TikTok published an incredibly short statement refuting the report:
“The recently posted Reuters story, which is based on anonymous uninformed sources, is factually inaccurate.”
That’s the entirety of the statement, and so far the only explanation TikTok has provided, so it’s unclear if the company is saying that the whole report is untrue, or if a particular detail in the report is incorrect.
Andrew Hutchinson of Social Media Today speculated:
“My assumption would be that the White House has raised concerns about the story, and the suggestion that TikTok may be creating a different version of the app, which will then be part of its sell-off discussions. Maybe that’s rankled government negotiators, who would prefer to get TikTok as is, which is why TikTok has sought to correct the record on this front.”
“But it also hasn’t corrected the record, or clarified its stance. It’s just saying that there are errors of fact in the report, which includes a range of details about the project, and any one of those elements could be what TikTok is referring to.”
Or maybe there's currently no U.S. deal in the works and there never has been? At this point, it's anyone's guess.