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China antitrust: ByteDance-Tencent dispute highlights data ownership grey area

  • Data ownership is at the heart of a legal battle between TikTok owner ByteDance and WeChat owner Tencent
  • Beijing vows to accelerate the establishment of a market for data trading as experts call for a more open mechanism for data sharing

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People use their smartphones at a cafe in the shopping area of Sanlitun in Beijing, China on August 7, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE
Tracy Quin ShanghaiandCoco Fengin Beijing
Users of online services generate mountains of data every day. The question of who owns that data has returned to the spotlight this week after two of China’s social media giants – TikTok owner ByteDance and WeChat owner Tencent Holdings – became locked in a legal fight over alleged monopolistic practices. It comes on the heels of an announcement by the country’s central government planners, calling for the establishment of a nationwide market for trading data.

ByteDance, which accuses Tencent of blocking links to Douyin on WeChat and QQ, argued that users are the owners of the data they create. In a statement issued on Tuesday, ByteDance said “users have the absolute right to control their own data, which should override the platform’s rights … User data shouldn’t be Tencent’s ‘private possession’.”

Experts, however, are split on the issue.

“Data belongs to both the users and the platform. Raw data comes from the users, but the platform processes them,” said Yang Dong, director of the Research Centre of Finance Technology and Cyber Security at Renmin University of China.

You Yunting, senior partner at DeBund Law Offices in Shanghai, agreed that both users and Tencent have rights to the data. “Tencent obtains user data with consent.”

Others said the issue is more nuanced.

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