As it continues to work to reassure Western lawmakers of its independence from the meddling of the Chinese Government, TikTok will now enable US data hosting partner Oracle to regularly review its algorithms and content moderation models, hopefully ensuring that they are not being manipulated by Chinese authorities.
Screening TikTok
As Axios reported, the new process will see TikTok submit its algorithms for assessment by Oracle ‘to ensure that outcomes are in line with expectations and that the models have not been manipulated in any way’. These reviews will also incorporate audits of TikTok content moderation processes, which might help the company avoid further regulatory scrutiny.
TikTok has repeatedly been criticized for alleged CCP interference, including censorship of certain anti-China topics, the implementation of extreme moderation models, and other examples of manipulation in its apps. While TikTok has denied these claims, recent reports also show that the number of young people who now rely on TikTok for discovery is increasing. Even news content is reportedly on the rise in the app, further escalating tensions around its growth.
US-China tensions remain high after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s recent Taiwan Trip, which China doesn’t view as an independent sovereignty. To very few peoples’ surprise, the US Government doesn’t officially recognize Taiwan as an independent country, it has repeatedly vowed to help Taiwan protect itself against Chinese incursion. But really, what is Taiwan if not its own country? An island? Bahamas 2.0 or something? Honestly.
Of course, this is but one example of ongoing concern, which is why many view TikTok as a security risk, because TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is subject to China’s ridiculous cybersecurity regulations. In short, ByteDance is one of the many digital dogs of the CCP. Though there’s nothing that suggests that the CCP has ever requested ByteDance to procure US user info from TikTok, security experts remain highly skeptical of the app given its Chinese linkage.
Recently, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr published an open letter, calling on both Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores due to its pattern of ‘surreptitious data practices’, relating to how it shares data with its Chinese parent company. Last month, Australian cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0 published a new analysis which suggested that TikTok gathers ‘excessive amounts of user data’, such as checking device location hourly. Yikes.
The Wrap
These concerns around TikTok have placed it in the hot seat with US regulators and various regional policymakers, which might lead to further action if TikTok cannot refute these claims. This is what TikTok hopes to achieve with this new partnership, along with Oracle now hosting all of its US user data that could help it establish more distinction from its Chinese parent company.
Unless TikTok somehow manages to break off from Chinese ownership, it’ll, unfortunately, have to constantly deal with probings like this.
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Sources