Is TikTok Interfering with American Elections?
By Movieguide® Contributor
The Justice Department is claiming TikTok used the app to collect data on the public’s opinion on social issues like gun control and abortion.
NBC reported that government lawyers filed a brief that accused TikTok and parent company ByteDance of using “an internal web-suite system called Lark to enable TikTok employees to speak directly with ByteDance engineers in China.”
“TikTok employees used Lark to send sensitive data about U.S. users, information that has wound up being stored on Chinese servers and accessible to ByteDance employees in China, federal officials said,” the outlet continued.
The filing also claimed that one of Lark’s internal search tools allowed TikTok and ByteDance to collect data on things like users’ views on abortion and religion.
The prosecutors also raised concerns that the TikTok algorithm could be used to secretly manipulate and influence Americans.
“Among other things, it would allow a foreign government to illicitly interfere with our political system and political discourse, including our elections,” the filing stated, per CNN, adding, “If, for example, the Chinese government were to determine that the outcome of a particular American election as sufficiently important to Chinese interests.”
It continued, “Allowing the Chinese government to remain poised to use TikTok to maximum effectiveness at a moment of extreme importance presents an unacceptable threat to national security.”
These concerns are not simply theoretical worries — CBS reported that the Justice Department alleged that TikTok and ByteDance have engaged in “heating” certain videos.
“Heating” is a practice in which “certain videos are promoted in order to receive a certain number of views,” CBS explained. “While this capability enables TikTok to curate popular content and disseminate it more widely, U.S. officials posit it can also be used for nefarious purposes.”
Movieguide® previously reported on TikTok’s algorithm:
TikTok’s influence is broad, but how is its algorithm so successful? And what is the secret behind it?
TikTok now ranks as the second most popular social media app used by children, and it’s more relevant than ever to understand the technology behind the media our kids consume.
According to a new study by Karan Vombatkere and colleagues at Boston University, “between 30% and 50% of the first 1,000 videos TikTok users encounter are exploiting their past interests.”
The study was conducted by analyzing data donated by users who downloaded their app usage under the GDPR (EU’s General Data Protection Regulation), the Fast Company explained.
“Our paper is a first step into getting some insight into how this personalization works. And then at the second step, we also try to look specifically into a few factors and see how much they influence personalization,” Vombatkere said.
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