Ex-employees of the app TikTok have stated to the Washington Post that the app's Chinese parent company exerted great influence over TikTok's content policies. Rules, including for the U.S. market, were allegedly adhered to by Chinese parent company ByteDance.
In response to concerns about Chinese interference, TikTok previously denied the parent company had any influence over its content. The 6 former employees, who were still working at the company early this year, say decisions from China were regularly imposed on the company's U.S. arm. These included guidelines for removing videos. These would include, for example, videos in which political statements were made and even videos in which two people were explicitly seen kissing.
According to the company's U.S. representation, things would now be very different. The American version of the app is now managed from California, and the Chinese parent company would no longer interfere in decisions about content guidelines, for example.
Whereas TikTok was previously an American company, it was sold to Chinese company ByteDance in 2017. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a research institute that investigates major acquisitions of American companies, among other things, is investigating this acquisition. In doing so, they are looking at the impact of the acquisition on app users. This is being done in response to concerns that U.S. senators had. Especially since the app is very popular among American teenagers, the government now wants to know how their data is handled by the company. Also, the U.S. government wants to prevent another power from influencing American citizens through this type of popular app.
TikTok is a music video app that is very popular among mostly young people. TikTok evolved from the app Musicl.ly. People share short lip-sync videos or comedy sketches through the app, for example. Users can customize their videos in the app by adding music, changing the speed, or using filters. Meanwhile, the company already has more than a billion users worldwide.
This news item can also be found in the Information Security file
