The truth may be some combination of the two - it's certainly arguable that more transparent social network algorithms could be in everyone's interests; it's al

The truth may be some combination of the two - it's certainly arguable that more transparent social network algorithms could be in everyone's interests; it's also true that TikTok would like to find ways to compete with Facebook, and increasing access to their source code may be part of their approach. Attempting to take a global view, the ability for users themselves to scrutinize source code could be particularly important if & when subsets of them encounter bugs or get stuck in software that increasingly mediates conversations and real-world interactions. In any case, as you say, source code is only part of the equation when we're determining how trustworthy the companies we deal with are. As it happens, Facebook mentioned some of their contributions to the open source community as part of their testimony[1] to the Antitrust committee hearing today: "We actively contribute to the open-source community. ... I believe sharing our intellectual property this way helps the entire ecosystem move forward and develop new products." The TikTok Transparency Center[2] announced by the CEO does not yet include access to source code, as far as I can tell, although it does mention it. [1] - https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU05/20200729/110883/HHRG-116-JU05-Wstate-ZuckerbergM-20200729.pdf https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU05/20200729/110883/HHRG... [2] - https://www.tiktok.com/transparency https://www.tiktok.com/transparency