Governments in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and across Europe have moved to ban the use of TikTok on officials’ phones in recent months
Perhaps the most pressing concern is around the Chinese government’s potential access to troves of data from TikTok’s millions of users.
TikTok’s user data could also be accessed by the company’s hundreds of Chinese engineers and operations staff, any one of whom could be working for the state
Critics of TikTok have accused the app of mass data collection, particularly in the U.S., where there are no general federal privacy rights for citizens.
The company is being investigated in Ireland, the U.K. and Canada over its handling of underage users' data. Watchdogs in the Netherlands, Italy and France have also investigated its privacy practices around personalized advertising and for failing to limit children's access to its platform.
the director of the U.S. National Security Agency warned that Chinese control of TikTok's algorithm could allow the government to carry out influence operations among Western populations
Reports emerged in 2019 suggesting that TikTok was censoring pro-LGBTQ content and videos mentioning Tiananmen Square
ByteDance has also been accused of pushing inane time-wasting videos to Western children
Skeptics of the security argument say that the Chinese government could simply buy troves of user data from little-regulated brokers which is true
Researchers at Citizen Lab said that TikTok doesn’t enforce obvious censorship. Other critics of this argument have pointed out that Western-owned platforms have also been manipulated by foreign countries also true
TikTok's Project Texas and Project Clover include steps to assuage fears of cyber espionage, as well as legal data access
EU plan would give a European security provider (still to be determined) the power to audit cybersecurity policies and data controls, and to restrict access to some employees
(Watchdogs in the Netherlands, Italy and France have also investigated its privacy practices around personalized advertising and for failing to limit children's access to its platform)
Besides accusations of deliberate "influence operations," TikTok has also been criticized for failing to protect children from addiction to its app, dangerous viral challenges, and disinformation
TikTok’s Italian headquarters was raided by the consumer protection regulator with the help of Italian law enforcement to investigate how the company protects children from viral challenges.
TikTok says it has adapted its content moderation since 2019 and regularly releases a transparency report about what it removes
It has also said it will comply with new EU content moderation rules, the Digital Services Act, which will request that platforms give access to regulators and researchers to their algorithms and data.
/nosanitize
https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2020/0361(COD)&l=en
forgot this
Late last year, it was revealed that representatives from TikTok’s parent company ByteDance had used TikTok data to track the movements of US journalists, in a bid to uncover which ByteDance employees may be leaking info to the press.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/TikTok-Faces-US-Ban-Dut-to-Ongoing-Spying-Concerns/639464/
The question then is whether the TikTok bans should be expanded to all users, as is currently under consideration in the US
White House is reportedly pressuring TikTok to be sold off from its Chinese owners
almost exactly what Trump proposed back in 2020
it is worth noting that any sale of TikTok, as a Chinese asset, would also require approval from the Chinese Government, which has repeatedly expressed its disapproval of the various bans of the app.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/china-reaction-tiktok-govt-bans-1.6762560
Irish Data Protection Commission, TikTok's lead privacy regulator in the EU, is set to decide in the next few months if the company unlawfully transferred European users’ data to China
China's cyber-spies are among the best in the world, and their job will be made easier if datasets or digital infrastructure are housed in their home territory
Critics of TikTok have accused the app of mass data collection, particularly in the U.S., where there are no general federal privacy rights for citizens