Using the app’s specialized algorithm, the company could suppress information on voting and other election issues, researchers have worried.Īnd as for software interference, senior U.S. In terms of TikTok influencing the masses, some experts fear the potential for misinformation and propaganda to influence TikTok’s audience - that is, young people like Matt (and not Alex) - around elections. China also has a long history of using social media to collect data on foreigners. (TikTok has fired the employees involved). China’s ByteDance, then, is far from alone in hoovering your info.īut it didn’t help TikTok’s case when the company revealed it had improperly tracked three Forbes journalists late last year, using methods the magazine characterized as spying. The lawmakers’ worries about data collection part are a bit rich: Intelligence agencies - including American ones - and data brokers have been scraping social media for years to obtain personal information. The company has denied allegations of mishandling data, saying that it doesn’t share user data with the Chinese Communist Party. After all, there’s already evidence of nefarious use in recent months and the young audience it reaches could be sensitive to influence campaigns. Put the two together, and you get something really interesting.”īut members of Congress say TikTok is worth particular scrutiny because its data could be particularly valuable to the Chinese government. “People don’t like social media, and people don’t like China. It’s not really rational,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ JAMES LEWIS told NatSec Daily. ![]() Such a ban would be difficult if not impossible to enact, they say, and lawmakers would be better off spending their time tightening laws around personal data collection in general. ![]() ![]() Now that the app is banned on government devices, they want to go further and stop TikTok’s operations nationwide - a proposal that many experts believe doesn’t address bigger data protection issues. Lawmakers in both parties say TikTok threatens U.S. Members of Congress say TikTok is worth particular scrutiny because its data could be particularly valuable to the Chinese government.
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