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Tag: TikTok

  • TikTok Plans Transparency Center, Tries to Dispel Censorship Claims

    TikTok Plans Transparency Center, Tries to Dispel Censorship Claims

    TikTok has announced the upcoming launch of a new Transparency Center, aimed at pulling the curtain back on the platform’s moderation efforts.

    TikTok has faced ongoing scrutiny over privacy concerns, with at least one lawsuit alleging the company secretly recorded videos and uploaded them to servers in China. Concerns over the app prompted the Department of Defense (DOD) to instruct all personnel to uninstall the app, and for Reddit’s CEO to label the social media app “fundamentally parasitic.”

    In an effort to address concerns, including allegations it censors users, TikTok is launching its Transparency Center where outside experts will have “an opportunity to directly view how our teams at TikTok go about the day-to-day challenging, but critically important, work of moderating content on the platform.

    “Through this direct observation of our Trust & Safety practices, experts will get a chance to evaluate our moderation systems, processes and policies in a holistic manner.”

    Although the Transparency Center initially focuses on censorship, it will eventually help address other security and privacy concerns as well.

    “The Transparency Center will open in early May with an initial focus on TikTok’s content moderation. Later, we will expand the Center to include insight into our source code, and our efforts around data privacy and security. This second phase of the initiative will be spearheaded by our newly appointed Chief Information Security Officer, Roland Cloutier, who starts with the company next month.”

  • Reddit CEO Calls TikTok ‘Fundamentally Parasitic’

    Reddit CEO Calls TikTok ‘Fundamentally Parasitic’

    Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman had some choice words about popular Chinese social media app TikTok at the Social 2030 conference.

    Social 2030 is a one-day conference held by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Facebook VP of Product Sam Lessin’s VC firm Slow Ventures. According to TechCrunch, when asked if Silicon Valley startups could learn from the app, Huffman didn’t mince any words.

    “Maybe I’m going to regret this, but I can’t even get to that level of thinking with them,” Huffman said. “Because I look at that app as so fundamentally parasitic, that it’s always listening, the fingerprinting technology they use is truly terrifying, and I could not bring myself to install an app like that on my phone.”

    “I actively tell people, ‘Don’t install that spyware on your phone,’” he added later.

    TikTok has been under fire with allegations it poses security risks. The Pentagon issued guidance banning the app from the phones of military personnel, and TSA recently banned employees from using the app to post videos on behalf of the agency. The company behind TikTok is also being sued for allegedly recording and uploading videos to China without permission.

    If Huffman’s strong words are any indication, it seems public perception may finally be turning against the app.

  • TSA Bans Employees From Posting on TikTok

    TSA Bans Employees From Posting on TikTok

    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has banned employees from using TikTok to create posts for the agency.

    According to a report in Time, the policy change came after Senator Chuck Schumer wrote a letter to the agency’s head pointing out concerns over the app, given the allegations it poses a threat to national security. The Pentagon has already instructed military personnel to avoid the app and the company behind TikTok is facing a lawsuit in which the app is alleged to have secretly recorded and uploaded videos to China.

    In view of those concerns, Senator Schumer told the Associated Press, “given the widely reported threats, the already-in-place agency bans, and the existing concerns posed by TikTok, the feds cannot continue to allow the TSA’s use of the platform to fly.”

    TSA has said it never officially recommended or supported the app but, as Time points out, multiple TSA videos showed the TikTok logo. Since Senator Schumer’s letter, the agency has stated that a “small number of TSA employees have previously used TikTok on their personal devices to create videos for use in TSA’s social media outreach, but that practice has since been discontinued.”

  • Vine Successor Byte Released

    Vine Successor Byte Released

    Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann has announced the launch of Vine’s successor, Byte, according to TechCrunch.

    Vine was founded in 2012, before quickly being acquired by Twitter in early 2013. Vine was a short-form video app that let people shoot, upload and share six-second videos. Ultimately Twitter discontinued the app in 2017 as other platforms rolled out competing features. Instagram, in particular, hurt Vine as it rolled out the ability to post videos, rather than just photos. Since Vine’s shutdown, however, the market has seen the rise of TikTok and short-form videos are as popular as ever.

    Now one of Vine’s co-founders has announced the release of a new short-form video app named Byte. One of the significant ways Byte will try to differentiate from other, more established services is by helping users monetize their accounts, something other platforms do very little of.

    When TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos asked Hoffman if Byte would offer tipping, ad revenue or other options, Hoffman told her that “We’re looking at all of those, but we’ll be starting with a revenue share + supplementing with our own funds. We’ll have more details about exactly how the pilot program will work soon.”

    With TikTok recently in the news over security concerns, with the Pentagon even issuing guidance instructing military personnel to “uninstall TikTok to circumvent any exposure of personal information,” Byte could represent a more secure, profitable short-form video opportunity for many content creators.

  • TikTok Releases Transparency Report In Effort To Quell Concerns

    TikTok Releases Transparency Report In Effort To Quell Concerns

    TikTok has released its first ever transparency report amid increasing scrutiny related to privacy and censorship, according to NBC News.

    TikTok has been in the news a lot lately, and not in the way any company wants to be. The Department of Defense recently released guidance instructing personnel to delete the app, with both the Navy and Army following suit.

    Its problems have also included a lawsuit alleging the app created an account and uploaded videos and face scans to servers in China. The plaintiff alleges that, while they downloaded the app, they had never set up an account.

    In view of the concerns, “Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a member of the Armed Services and Intelligence committees, sent a letter asking Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, to assess TikTok and other China-based companies for potential security risks.”

    In an effort to address those concerns, TikTok has released its first transparency report detailing the worldwide government requests it received in the first half of 2019. India took the top spot, with the U.S. coming in second. The company has vowed to continue releasing transparency reports moving forward.

    Notably, China is not listed in the report, although the company says it does not operate there and that data for American users is stored in the U.S.

  • U.S. Army Reverses Course, Bans TikTok

    U.S. Army Reverses Course, Bans TikTok

    TikTok has been under increasing scrutiny, with allegations it represents a national security threat. Following guidance from the Pentagon, the U.S. Army has officially banned the app, according to Military.com.

    TikTok has surged in popularity in the U.S., and military personnel are no exception. In fact, as Military.com points out, Army recruiters have been using the app to help reach Generation Z.

    The Department of Defense (DoD) recently issued guidance on mobile phone security, mentioning TikTok specifically. The DoD guidance tells employees to “be wary of applications you download, monitor your phones for unusual and unsolicited texts etc., and delete them immediately and uninstall TikTok to circumvent any exposure of personal information.”

    Following that guidance, the U.S. Army has officially banned the app from personnel phones.

    “It is considered a cyber threat,” Army spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Robin Ochoa, told Military.com. “We do not allow it on government phones.”

    Evidence suggests all individuals, not just military personnel, should be wary of the social media app. A recent lawsuit in California accuses the app of secretly analyzing videos and images without consent, and uploading them to servers in China.

  • TikTok Accused of Illegally Collecting Data and Uploading It to China

    TikTok Accused of Illegally Collecting Data and Uploading It to China

    A California student has filed a class-action lawsuit against TikTock, the wildly popular social media app from China. According to a report in the Daily Beast, the suit alleges that TikTok uploads data without user consent—in some cases without a user even creating an account.

    Misty Hong, a student at Palo Alto, claims she downloaded the app but never got around to setting up an account. According to the suit, TikTok created an account using her phone number, and began analyzing videos she took but never uploaded. These videos included a facial scan.

    “The app, she alleges, transferred all of her information to servers owned and operated by companies that cooperate with the Chinese government. She’s filed the lawsuit on behalf of all U.S. residents who have downloaded TikTok, roughly 110 million people.”

    The suit also alleges the app secretly gathers “users’ locations, ages, private messages, phone numbers, contacts, genders, browsing histories, cell-phone serial numbers, and IP addresses. That data was allegedly then sent to Chinese servers.”

    TikTok’s executives have tried to reassure the American public that their data is stored in Virginia, with a backup in Singapore. In a recent New York Times profile, they tried to reassure American users that their data cannot be accessed by Chinese officials. Nonetheless, previous user agreements did stipulate that data could be sent to China. The suit is alleging that practice has continued despite changes to the agreement saying it won’t.

    Convincing users of its independence is a tall order, given that Chinese corporations are required to cooperate with Chinese intelligence when requested. This is partly what has led to Huawei being blacklisted in the U.S. and under scrutiny in many countries around the world.

    U.S. senators have already warned of the threat to national security TikTok may pose, should it be sending data back to China. This lawsuit will only add to those concerns and could result in punitive measures taken against ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok.

    In the meantime, given China’s poor history of respecting individual privacy—including, but not limited to China now requiring facial recognition scans to open a wireless account—this news should come as a surprise to exactly no one.