For most people, TikTok is a harmless social media platform enjoyed by 300 million users in Europe and the United States. However, behind the dance battles and the tutorials lurks another side to the app: its Chinese-made algorithm.
The engine that drives the platform is, at best, meticulously tracking us and feeding back to a company whose owner has an in-house Communist Party committee. At worst, it is quietly coercing the free world with Chinese Communist Party endorsed propaganda.
Despite its claims to the contrary, TikTok is closely intertwined with the Chinese state through its parent company ByteDance. ByteDance is required to give the Chinese government a 'Golden Share' in its companies and comply with a myriad of Chinese laws. Its own court filings have shown it relies on ByteDance engineers in China to maintain its algorithm. TikTok's highly secretive algorithm has been shared with the Chinese government alongside other Chinese tech giants.
In the United States, 52 percent of users regularly get their news on TikTok. They might reasonably expect it to provide balance and context; yet leaks from 2019 showed how the network instructed........