Last week saw a flurry of technopolitical developments as the US and India announced a slew of technology and defense deals. In case you missed it, we had a special post dissecting the preliminary details of India’s accession to the Artemis Accords. Check it out here! Also tune in to this podcast episode of All Things Policy, where Pranay Kotasthane, Aditya Ramanathan, Bharath Reddy, and Saurabh Todi from the High-Tech Geopolitics team discuss the announcements in the India-US joint statement in the field of Semiconductors, Advanced Telecommunications, and Space.

Matsyanyaaya 1: Concerns Surrounding TikTok and the Future of ‘Project Texas’

— Anushka Saxena

On June 16, the CEO of the controversial Chinese media platform TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, sent a letter to US Congress Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), responding to their questions about the company surrounding the storage of data of American users on the platform. In his testimony to a House Committee of the US Congress, Shou had previously stated that "American data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore." But now, a Forbes investigation from late May has revealed that this may not entirely be true. This investigation prompted said Senators to seek answers from TikTok, and Shou's letter has confirmed said suspicions.

What did Forbes' investigation say?

On May 30, Forbes published a report arguing that "over the past several years, thousands of TikTok creators and businesses around the world have given the company sensitive financial information—including their social security numbers and tax IDs—so that they can be paid by the platform. But unbeknownst to many of them, TikTok has stored that personal financial information on servers in China that are accessible by employees there, Forbes has learned."

Further, their report argued: "TikTok uses various internal tools and databases from its Beijing-based parent ByteDance to manage payments to creators who earn money through the app, including many of its biggest stars in the United States and Europe. The same tools are used to pay outside vendors and small businesses working with TikTok. But a trove of records obtained by Forbes from multiple sources across different parts of the company reveals that highly sensitive financial and personal information about those prized users and third parties has been stored in China. The discovery also raises questions about whether employees who are not authorized to access that data have been able to. It draws on internal communications, audio recordings, videos, screenshots, documents marked "Privileged and Confidential," and several people familiar with the matter."

…And what has Shou said in his letter to Blackburn and Blumenthal?

The point of the letter is to confirm that over the past year, TikTok has collaborated closely with Oracle to implement various measures to enhance the protection of the application, systems, and the security of data belonging to its users in the United States. 

They also announced that in January 2023, they had achieved a significant milestone in this endeavour – the default storage location for US user data has been changed. All US user traffic is currently being directed to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. While TikTok's data centres in the US and Singapore are still utilized for backup purposes, the company's ongoing efforts involve removing US users' private data from our data centres. Their objective is to fully transition to Oracle cloud servers in the United States, for which, as of March 2023, they have also started deleting previously stored data from foreign servers.

But the controversy has arisen from the second main iteration of the letter, which reads: "TikTok has been clear that there are certain, limited exceptions to the definition of protected data. These exceptions are in place to help ensure interoperability of TikTok as a global platform and were determined as part of TikTok's extensive, multi-year negotiations with CFIUS that have occurred under two Administrations. Exceptions include categories such as public data, business metrics, interoperability data, and certain creator data, if a creator voluntarily signs up for a commercial program to be supported by TikTok in reaching new audiences and monetizing content. As part of Project Texas, we are also designing a trusted path to enable TikTok to respond to global government and litigation demands for documents relating to users."

This confirms that if a content creator based out of the US has subscribed to paid content promotion programmes on the platform for the sake of 'interoperability', their data has been redirected to servers abroad… including those in China.

The senators have responded in an obviously indignant manner, stating: "We are extremely concerned that TikTok is storing Americans' personal, private data within the reach of the Chinese government. TikTok executives appear to have repeatedly and intentionally misled Congress when answering how the company secures and protects the data of Americans. TikTok's response makes it crystal clear that Americans' data is still exposed to Beijing's draconian and pervasive spying regimes – despite the claims of TikTok's misleading public relations campaign."

What is Project Texas?

'Project Texas' is Shou Zi Chew's answer to the US Congress's security concerns. Through the Project, TikTok in the US would maintain local data servers disallowing any flow of information of American users outside the country, and Oracle will reportedly own these servers. Moreover, as part of the Project, TikTok might also reveal its algorithm to the US agencies for greater transparency.

At this point, the countries of the 'Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance', namely the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK, as well as the European Parliament, have already collectively banned TikTok from being installed in government-issued/ federal service devices, to prevent sensitive official data from reaching the hands of China, or any externally based TikTok server that the US may have no jurisdiction over. 

Moreover, a Bill by US Senator McCaul on 'Deterring America's Technological Adversaries' Act (DATA Act) is already tabled for discussion in Congress since February this year, and it identifies TikTok and its parent company 'ByteDance' major security threats to American users' privacy. With the developments in the debate on TikTok and data governance likely to continue, the latest controversy surrounding the letter may well be the death knell that pushes the US to adopt broader legislation regulating civilian uses of the app. 

Cyberpolitik Explainer : The Soviet Semiconductor Failure

— Revati Gandekar

Semiconductors are critical for technological sectors that produce electronic components such as transistors, diodes, integrated circuits, and microprocessors. These components are essential for computers, telecommunications, consumer electronics, military, and aerospace. The semiconductor industry played a pivotal role in shaping the technological landscape of the 20th century. While the United States and other Western countries experienced significant growth and innovation in this field, the Soviet Union also made notable advancements in the semiconductor industry. This aims to analyze the rise and fall of the semiconductor industry in the USSR, exploring what contributed to its initial success, the subsequent challenges, and ultimately the industry's failure. 

In the late 1950s, the USSR recognized the potential of semiconductor technology and sought to develop its industry. They established research institutes, such as the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology and the Lebedev Physical Institute, which focused on semiconductor research and development. Additionally, collaborations with Eastern Bloc countries, such as East Germany, helped accelerate the industry's growth.

Unlike the market-driven approach of the West industries, the USSR's semiconductor sector was primarily state-driven. The Soviet government heavily invested in research and development, providing massive funding and resources to semiconductor projects. This support allowed Soviet scientists and engineers to progress significantly in the field, albeit often in a more secretive and controlled environment.

The Soviet semiconductor industry achieved several notable milestones during its heyday. In the early 1960s, Soviet scientists developed the first silicon planar transistor, a breakthrough that revolutionized transistor manufacturing worldwide. The USSR also made significant progress in integrated circuit technology, contributing to advancements in military electronics, space exploration, and industrial automation.

While the USSR achieved remarkable progress in the semiconductor industry, it faced numerous challenges and limitations that eventually hindered its growth. One significant factor was the lack of open collaboration and information exchange with Western countries. The USSR's isolationist policies limited access to global semiconductor developments, impeding the industry's ability to keep pace with international advancements. This stifled innovation, as government committees with little technical expertise decided on resource allocation, technology adoption, and production targets. The lack of market-oriented incentives hindered the industry's ability to respond to changing market dynamics and meet international standards.

One of the main challenges that the Soviet Union faced in developing its semiconductor industry was the initial ideological opposition to cybernetics, which was seen as a bourgeois pseudoscience that threatened the Marxist-Leninist doctrine. This attitude changed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when Nikita Khrushchev adopted a policy that encouraged computer production and scientific research. The Soviet Union realized the strategic implications of se

Episode ID: 1000618568995

GUID: substack:post:131423047

Release Date: 28/06/2023, 04:30:00