TikTok is the most downloaded app in the world. Best known for its fun, short videos
But this fun app hides a dark secret Ok, several dark secrets
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell. You know, I’m usually not in the personal advice
business, but here’s a free one: delete your TikTok account.
That’s because TikTok is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
And if you use TikTok, the Chinese Communist Party now has a ridiculous amount of data on you.
TikTok is owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance. . They have a
Chinese version of TikTok called Douyin. It’s like TikTok, just more censored.
How much control does China have on TikTok? I’d say about this much.
And TikTok collects a lot of data on you.
Here’s just a partial list. You may notice that includes keystrokes.
TikTok could use that “to capture personal user information like
credit card numbers and passwords, though the company claims it doesn’t do that”
TikTok does say in its privacy policy that it reads direct messages.
It also says it could turn over your information to the government if there’s an “inquiry”.
And they’re probably not just talking about the US government.
In its privacy policy, TikTok also says it collects “information about
your approximate location” and “With [users]
permission...also...precise location data (such as GPS).”
And in December, TikTok admitted that ByteDance was using the app to track journalists’ locations.
Specifically, US-based journalists who were reporting on TikTok and ByteDance.
Which is bad news because Buzzfeed got ahold of leaked audio recordings of internal TikTok
meetings. And American user data has been repeatedly accessed from China.
In fact, “everything is seen in China.”
That shouldn’t be a surprise to users who actually read TikTok’s privacy policy though.
It says right there in black and white that “We may share all of the information
we collect with a parent, subsidiary, or other affiliate of our corporate group.”
So why is China using TikTok like this? I’ll explain after the break.
Welcome back.
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is under the control of the Chinese
Communist Party. And they’re literally trying to control how you think.
TikTok’s CEO said last June that “ByteDance
engineers around the world may assist in developing [TikTok] algorithms.”
And using those algorithms, TikTok censors information that the Chinese Communist
Party would rather you not know. That includes “content related to
certain world leaders, Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence and Falun Gong.”
As well as “highly controversial topics”, like China’s genocide of Uyghurs.
In 2019, TikTok was forced apologize to a teenager for deleting her video
about Uyghur genocide. The video looked like a makeup tutorial,
but several seconds into it she starts talking about the genocide.
The video was viewed more than 1.5 million times before *her entire account* was also blocked.
TikTok said it was due to “human error” and reinstated her account shortly after.
I assume they consider the human error not banning her before her video went viral.
Now TikTok says none of its content moderators are based in China.
However it admits that China-based “ByteDance
plays a role in the hiring of key personnel at TikTok.”
In fact, according to LinkedIn, 300 of their employees used to work for Chinese
state-run media—and some still do. That includes 50 employees working with TikTok.
And according to former employees, China was actively censoring content on TikTok.
“Former U.S. employees said moderators based
in Beijing still had the final call on whether flagged videos were approved.”
A number of executives reportedly left TikTok after discovering that
Chinese employees were mostly calling the shots.
The US government is taking action.
In December, Congress passed a bill banning TikTok on all government devices.
Some US states have done the same.
And maybe someday the US government will completely ban the TikTok app. Like India
did more than two years ago. After Chinese soldiers killed Indian troops.
So if you’re still a user of TikTok, let us know in the comments below why. And if you’re not,
let us know what you thought about this episode.
And now I’ll answer a question from a fan of the
show who supports us on the crowdfunding website Patreon:
Ian Pendleton asks: “How bad would it be for the CCP if the U.S. decided to
remove any and all state-owned businesses and corporations from the New York Stock
Exchange regardless of whether or not they could be audited?”
Well, Ian, last year five Chinese state-owned companies delisted from the New York Stock
Exchange—because otherwise they would have had to let US regulators audit their books.
They voluntarily delisted. Most people never heard about it. Which is to say,
it did not cause the world to explode.
But there are still more than 200 Chinese companies—some of
which are state-owned—on US stock exchanges.
That’s too many for the Chinese Communist Party to lose.
And that’s why the Party finally caved and allowed US regulators to access the
audits of these Chinese companies. Previously China said these were state-owned secrets.
If Chinese state-owned companies were forced to delist from Wall Street,
this would be a good thing for Americans in the long term—because it would mean
Americans would be less tied to the success of a genocidal regime. But the CCP wants American
money. So it won’t delist its companies unless it absolutely has to. And sadly,
some Wall Street investors will not pull their money out unless they absolutely have to.
Thanks for your question, Ian.
And thank you to everyone who supports us on Patreon—because that’s the main way we fund
this show. Visit Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored Contribute as little as a dollar per episode
and you’ll get cool perks, including being able to ask me questions I’ll answer on the show.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell, thanks for watching China Uncensored.