Is TikTok really a danger to the West?

TikTok has been accused of harvesting huge amounts of data. The app collects details such as location, what specific device is being used and which other apps are on it. China has attacked a bill going through US Congress that could ultimately see TikTok banned in the States. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based tech giant ByteDance, making it unique as a non-American mainstream app.

The company says the company is fully independent and has not provided user data to the Chinese government. However, a similar test by Citizen Lab concluded that TikTok collects similar types of data to other popular social media platforms. Donald Trump’s 2020 executive order alleged TikTok’s data collection could potentially allow China to track federal employees and contractors. Fears stoked by a vague piece of Chinese law passed in 2017.

Article seven of China#39;s National Intelligence Law states that all Chinese organisations and citizens should support, assist and co-operate with the country#34;s intelligence efforts. TikTok executives have repeatedly tried to reassure people that Chinese staff cannot access the data of non-Chinese users. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology argue this sentence is taken out of context, and note that the law also includes caveats protecting the rights of users and private companies. ByteDance admitted that several of its Beijing-based employees did access the data of at least two journalists in the US and UK.

The firm insists user data has never been stored in China and is building data centres in Texas for US user data, and at sites in Europe for data from its citizens. TikTok argues that its community guidelines  prohibit misinformation that could cause harm to our community or the larger public. Data of our European users is safeguarded in a specially designed protective environment, and can only be accessed by approved employees subject to strict independent oversight and verification. Researchers at Citizen Lab carried out a comparison of TikTok and Douyin.

They concluded that TikTok does not employ the same political censorship. Georgia Institute of Technology analysts also searched for topics such as the independence of Taiwan or jokes about Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. They found videos in all of these categories can easily be found on TikTok. The app is already banned in India, which took action in 2020.

But a US ban could have a huge impact on the platform, since typically US allies often fall in step with such decisions. China does not have to worry about US apps because access for Chinese citizens has been blocked for many years.