Former TikTok Employee Reveals the App’s Deepest, Darkest Secrets
By Movieguide® Contributor
A former TikTok employee is sharing tons of details about the app, from how its algorithm works to whether or not they’re really storing user data.
“I quit my $330k engineering job at TikTok. Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban. Ask Me Anything,” Arman Khondker, a software engineer, posted on X.
The questions ranged from silly (“How do I scare my kids from spending their life on tiktok?”) to serious (“were they doing what they are accused of doing?”), and Khondker answered them all.
The engineer explained that TikTok’s much-hyped algorithm does something very simple — it “understand[s] you as a person” — and was “developed by engineers in China.”
“TikTok algorithm is far more advanced and mature as compared to other big tech,” Khondker wrote. “Probably most valuable piece of software in existence right now.”
He also shed some light on TikTok’s collection of users’ data, telling one X user that TikTok did do “what they are accused of doing,” but it’s “nothing too different from any other big tech *cough* meta.”
CNN published a report with similar findings, telling readers, “TikTok may collect an extensive amount of data, much of it quietly, but as far as researchers can tell, it isn’t any more invasive or illegal than what other US tech companies do.”
“According to security experts, that’s more a reflection of the broad leeway we’ve given to tech companies in general to handle our data, not an issue that’s unique or specific to TikTok,” the outlet continued.
READ MORE: DO AMERICANS SUPPORT THE TIKTOK BAN?
TikTok managed to get around the Jan. 19 ban, but its fate is still up in the air.
On his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order that says the ban won’t be enforced for “a period of 75 days” from Monday — Sunday, April 5 — or if TikTok sells to an American-owned company.
“Every rich person has called me about TikTok,” Trump said of the app. “I may not do the deal, or I may do the deal. TikTok is worthless, worthless if I don’t approve it. It has to close.”
READ MORE: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW EXPERT CALLS TIKTOK BAN ‘EXTREMELY HARMFUL’ FIRST AMENDMENT
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