Can the cowboy state help stick the boot into Congress's plans to ban TikTok? EPA
Can the cowboy state help stick the boot into Congress's plans to ban TikTok? EPA
Can the cowboy state help stick the boot into Congress's plans to ban TikTok? EPA
Can the cowboy state help stick the boot into Congress's plans to ban TikTok? EPA

'Project Texas': TikTok's race against time to stay in America


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  • Arabic

TikTok is in a battle for survival in the US, where politicians across the country are working to ban it over unproven fears the Chinese government can harvest Americans' personal data from the app.

The stakes could hardly be higher for the wildly popular video-sharing platform, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. About 150 million Americans use it, and a ban here could lead to other western nations quickly following suit, such as the UK.

TikTok, which says Beijing has never asked for any data, is turning to the southern state of Texas as it struggles to convince sceptical US officials that it will do everything it can to protect user data.

Dubbed “Project Texas”, the $1.5 billion plan would create a separate US-based company to store all American data with Austin-based Oracle.

“We have designed Project Texas to move forward in the United States,” TikTok's chief executive Shou Zi Chew said at a Congressional hearing last month.

“Firewall off American data stored on American soil by an American company, overseen by American personnel.”

Several bills are already being considered by Congress, including one endorsed by the White House, that would ban TikTok.

President Joe Biden's administration also recently delivered TikTok an ultimatum, saying it could be banned if its Chinese owners did not sell their stake in the company.

Austin's Wild West history could be reinvented in the 21st-century battle over data and US-China trade. Photo: World Imagery / Corbis
Austin's Wild West history could be reinvented in the 21st-century battle over data and US-China trade. Photo: World Imagery / Corbis

The app has already been banned on federal government devices for members of Congress and the military. Nearly half of all US states have also banned TikTok on government devices.

And some states are looking to go further still, absent a federal ban. Earlier this month, local lawmakers passed a bill that would make Montana the first US state with a total ban on TikTok, though how such a ban could be enforced at the state level is unclear.

TikTok is already banned outright in India and Taiwan. Western governments, including in the EU, Canada and New Zealand, have banned the platform from government devices. The UK has also announced a ban.

Mr Chew's challenge is to convince a sceptical US Congress that there is a barrier between app users in America and any servers that could feed data to China.

He said that all new US data has been sent to Oracle since October, and the company this month began deleting all US user data from non-Oracle servers. He said he expects that process will be done by the end of this year.

Oracle moved its headquarters from California to Austin in 2020. AP
Oracle moved its headquarters from California to Austin in 2020. AP

In a press release announcing the partnership with TikTok, Oracle chief executive Safra Catz said the project would allow for greater security and data privacy for its US users.

“We are 100 per cent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok’s American users, and users throughout the world,” Ms Catz said.

“This greatly improved security and guaranteed privacy will enable the continued rapid growth of the TikTok user community to benefit all stakeholders.”

Although nearly half of all Americans use TikTok, it has become a scapegoat for concerns over trade, security and competition with China in general.

In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott banned the app from all government-owned devices in December, leading some public universities to ban it on campus internet networks.

“Owned by a Chinese company that employs Chinese Communist Party members, TikTok harvests significant amounts of data from a user’s device, including details about a user’s internet activity,” Mr Abbott said in a statement.

But he hasn’t always opposed the idea of a Texas-based home for the app. In 2020, when then-president Donald Trump announced a deal to move TikTok’s US operations to Texas, Mr Abbott tweeted: “Texas would be the perfect place for the HQ.”

Since then, more Republicans and Democrats have joined a chorus demanding more transparency from the app and calling for a more widespread ban in the US.

Lawmakers did not seem particularly swayed by Mr Chew’s testimony in Congress, highlighting concerns not just about the app’s data usage but its addictive content and potential impact on younger users.

“With all due respect, the ‘No company can be perfect’ line has been used way too much today,” said Democratic Congresswoman Angie Craig, Minnesota.

“Clearly, in the three-plus hours you’ve been before us today, what you’re saying about Project Texas just doesn’t pass the smell test.”

High profile Al Shabab attacks
  • 2010: A restaurant attack in Kampala Uganda kills 74 people watching a Fifa World Cup final football match.
  • 2013: The Westgate shopping mall attack, 62 civilians, five Kenyan soldiers and four gunmen are killed.
  • 2014: A series of bombings and shootings across Kenya sees scores of civilians killed.
  • 2015: Four gunmen attack Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya and take over 700 students hostage, killing those who identified as Christian; 148 die and 79 more are injured.
  • 2016: An attack on a Kenyan military base in El Adde Somalia kills 180 soldiers.
  • 2017: A suicide truck bombing outside the Safari Hotel in Mogadishu kills 587 people and destroys several city blocks, making it the deadliest attack by the group and the worst in Somalia’s history.
About Takalam

Date started: early 2020

Founders: Khawla Hammad and Inas Abu Shashieh

Based: Abu Dhabi

Sector: HealthTech and wellness

Number of staff: 4

Funding to date: Bootstrapped

While you're here
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Abu Dhabi Awards explained:

What are the awards? They honour anyone who has made a contribution to life in Abu Dhabi.

Are they open to only Emiratis? The awards are open to anyone, regardless of age or nationality, living anywhere in the world.

When do nominations close? The process concludes on December 31.

How do I nominate someone? Through the website.

When is the ceremony? The awards event will take place early next year.

COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Floward%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERiyadh%2C%20Saudi%20Arabia%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAbdulaziz%20Al%20Loughani%20and%20Mohamed%20Al%20Arifi%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EE-commerce%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETotal%20funding%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAbout%20%24200%20million%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAljazira%20Capital%2C%20Rainwater%20Partners%2C%20STV%20and%20Impact46%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E1%2C200%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Lamsa

Founder: Badr Ward

Launched: 2014

Employees: 60

Based: Abu Dhabi

Sector: EdTech

Funding to date: $15 million

Specs

Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request

Mina Cup winners

Under 12 – Minerva Academy

Under 14 – Unam Pumas

Under 16 – Fursan Hispania

Under 18 – Madenat

Sheikh Zayed's poem

When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.

Your love is ruling over my heart

Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it

Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home

You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness

Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins

You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge

You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm

Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you

You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it

Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by. 

WHAT%20MACRO%20FACTORS%20ARE%20IMPACTING%20META%20TECH%20MARKETS%3F
%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Looming%20global%20slowdown%20and%20recession%20in%20key%20economies%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Russia-Ukraine%20war%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Interest%20rate%20hikes%20and%20the%20rising%20cost%20of%20debt%20servicing%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Oil%20price%20volatility%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Persisting%20inflationary%20pressures%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Exchange%20rate%20fluctuations%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Shortage%20of%20labour%2Fskills%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20A%20resurgence%20of%20Covid%3F%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
South Africa squad

: Faf du Plessis (captain), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen (wkt), Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Duanne Olivier, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada.

The candidates

Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive

Ali Azeem, business leader

Tony Booth, professor of education

Lord Browne, former BP chief executive

Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist

Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist

Dr Mark Mann, scientist

Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner

Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister

Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster

 

CONFIRMED%20LINE-UP
%3Cp%3EElena%20Rybakina%20(Kazakhstan)%0D%3Cbr%3EOns%20Jabeur%20(Tunisia)%0D%3Cbr%3EMaria%20Sakkari%20(Greece)%0D%3Cbr%3EBarbora%20Krej%C4%8D%C3%ADkov%C3%A1%20(Czech%20Republic)%0D%3Cbr%3EBeatriz%20Haddad%20Maia%20(Brazil)%0D%3Cbr%3EJe%C4%BCena%20Ostapenko%20(Latvia)%0D%3Cbr%3ELiudmila%20Samsonova%0D%3Cbr%3EDaria%20Kasatkina%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EVeronika%20Kudermetova%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3ECaroline%20Garcia%20(France)%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EMagda%20Linette%20(Poland)%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3ESorana%20C%C3%AErstea%20(Romania)%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EAnastasia%20Potapova%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EAnhelina%20Kalinina%20(Ukraine)%E2%80%AF%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EJasmine%20Paolini%20(Italy)%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EEmma%20Navarro%20(USA)%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3ELesia%20Tsurenko%20(Ukraine)%0D%3Cbr%3ENaomi%20Osaka%20(Japan)%20-%20wildcard%0D%3Cbr%3EEmma%20Raducanu%20(Great%20Britain)%20-%20wildcard%3Cbr%3EAlexandra%20Eala%20(Philippines)%20-%20wildcard%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Updated: April 28, 2023, 6:00 PM`