Tiktok CEO Grilled

Concerns Surrounding the Social Media Platform

P. P. Zhang

OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS, TIKTOK HAS BEEN THE WORLD’S MOST DOWNLOADED APP, WITH OVER TWO BILLION DOWNLOADS AND OVER ONE BILLION USERS. The addictive video-sharing app went viral in 2018, attracting attention from celebrities and everyday users alike. This popularity can be heavily attributed to youth, as being the significant demographic and target audience. Over the years, the app, like most other social media platforms, has had its controversies. For TikTok, this has most notably been with the ever increasing list of privacy scandals and data breaches. As a result, 17 US states have already banned the app from government-issued devices, amid concerns of spyware relaying data to Chinese authorities. Back home, Australia has had its own problems with the app and national security, recently following suit with other nations with its public service banning of the platform.

These controversies have culminated in the TikTok CEO, Shou Chew’s hearing in front of US Congress. The politicians were calling for the platform to be outright banned in the States, in an attempt to remove unwanted foreign access to US citizens’ data. Chew unsurprisingly responded by defending the app, emphasising Tiktok’s independence from China, claiming “TikTok itself is not available in mainland China, we’re headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore”. Despite Chew’s Singaporean background and the app itself not being developed in China, the platform is inevitably affiliated with the latter, due to its parent company, ByteDance, which is in fact owned by China. The hearing itself was nearly six hours long, with many journalists and internet personalities criticising the lack of understanding regarding technology and the inefficacy that was evident in the Congress members’ questioning. 

But apart from its parent company, what makes TikTok so different from other social media platforms that is of concern? Chew backs this, claiming that their data collection processes are the same as any other tech giant (which is still concerningly pervasive). The problem lies in the target demographic, in particular the app’s impact on children. Experts have found that TikTok’s algorithm recommends dangerous videos to teenagers that promote eating disorders and suicide and self-harm among a plethora of other issues. For instance, the TikTok ‘choking challenge’ resulted in the death of a ten-year-old girl from Pensylvannia last year, and even before that the death of a thirteen-year-old boy in 2018. 

Apart from the issues of pervasive data collection and potentially dangerous trends, there have been additional concerns with regard to the app and promoting disinformation through censorship. Overall, Chew’s hearing has been reminiscent of Mark Zuckerberg’s hearing regarding the 2018 Cambridge Analytica data scandal, which too, was conducted in the US Congress. The US government’s response to Shou Chew’s hearing stands to be seen, and so maybe in the meantime, we should keep enjoying the harmless viral dance trends and lip sync videos while we still have the chance. Or maybe we shouldn’t.