TikTok acknowledged several of its employees improperly accessed White’s private user data, along with that of several other journalists, in an attempt to identify and track down their private sources. This is all coming about a month after TikTok was found to be spying on Forbes journalist Emily Baker White, who was covering leaked details about the project. Under TikTok’s plan, USDS employees will report to a yet-to-be-finalized independent board of directors with strong national security and cybersecurity credentials. The project also entails inviting a team of outsiders, including from Oracle, to audit its algorithms.Īnother part of the project will create a new subsidiary called TikTok US Data Security (USDS) that will oversee the app’s content moderation policies, train TikTok’s recommendation engine with US user data, and authorize editorial decisions. Its “Project Texas” is a major partnership with the Texas-based tech giant Oracle to move all US data that was previously stored on TikTok’s foreign servers to the US. TikTok’s lobby in Culver City, Los AngelesĪt Tuesday’s event, TikTok shared more on how it plans to reassure the public that it won’t be influenced by the Chinese government. While there’s no evidence that the Chinese government has directly demanded American user data from TikTok or its parent company, investigative reporting by BuzzFeed News revealed that as recently as June 2022, Chinese TikTok employees could access US users’ data. TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, which operates its own version of TikTok’s app, called Douyin, in China.Ĭritics have long argued that any Chinese-owned company is beholden to China’s national security laws, meaning ByteDance employees could be compelled to surveil Americans or manipulate TikTok’s recommendation algorithms in service to the Chinese government. But Pappas and the company’s other leaders never actually said “China” in their on-the-record remarks. There’s one big reason we were all at TikTok’s offices: China. “We really do understand the critique,” said Pappas about the role Big Tech has in controlling “how algorithms work, how moderation policies work, and the data flows of the systems.”īut, Pappas said, TikTok is meeting this concern by offering what she calls “unprecedented levels of transparency,” with initiatives like its new center and its plans to implement other initiatives, such as starting to open TikTok’s API to researchers. In her opening remarks to reporters, TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas acknowledged general skepticism around the power social media platforms have over parts of our digital lives - without mentioning any specific political concerns with TikTok. The event also presented a rare opportunity for reporters to ask questions of a broad cross section of TikTok’s staff about its content policies and algorithms. The information TikTok offered about its algorithms and content moderation wasn’t particularly illuminating, but what stood out were the details it shared about its plan to split parts of its US operations from China, while still being owned by a Chinese company. TikTok’s new Los Angeles Transparency and Accountability Center offers a behind-the-scenes view into TikTok’s algorithms and content moderation practices, which have attracted controversy because of concerns that the wildly popular app could be weaponized to promote pro-Chinese government messaging or misinformation. Already, 17 US states have banned the app from government-issued devices. A little less than three years after President Donald Trump tried to ban it, the company’s negotiations with US regulators have stalled and it’s facing renewed calls for a national ban.
The exchange revealed the tension underlying the friendly press invitation: TikTok, an increasingly influential social media app used by over 130 million Americans, is facing intense political scrutiny in the US over its parent company’s ties to China. TikTok staffers looked unsure of what to say until Allyn reassured them he was just kidding.
“How much of a national security threat is it to join the wifi network here?” NPR technology reporter Bobby Allyn joked as he waited with me and other attendees for executive presentations to start. This Tuesday, following its recent charm offensive in Washington, DC, TikTok hosted journalists at its Los Angeles headquarters to unveil a new center it has created to woo American policymakers, regulators, and civil society leaders.
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