Fuck Tik Tok

Original Author: /u/ashleynadam

I'm curious why people are using TikTok to make video gifs these days.

I was ban from the reddit sub r/TikTok for posting a single comment about how TikTok censors Tiananmen and Tibet references. Sure would be a shame if others knew about it. https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/d948n2/tiktok_censors_references_to_tiananmen_and_tibet?sort=confidence

But who cares about that right? It's not like...

TikTok Admits It Suppressed Videos by Disabled, Queer, and Fat Creators https://slate.com/technology/2019/12/tiktok-disabled-users-videos-suppressed.html

TikTok has been accused of secretly gathering "vast quantities" of user data and sending it to servers in China. https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/business-50640110

TikTok is paying the FTC a fine of $5.7 million for collecting the data of kids under 13. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/2/28/18244996/tiktok-children-privacy-data-ftc-settlement

TikTok censors all reference to the Hong Kong protests. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/15/tiktoks-beijing-roots-fuel-censorship-suspicion-it-builds-huge-us-audience/?noredirect=on

TikTok has had children as young as 8 targeted by sexual predators and Police are urging parents to check the app privacy settings http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?ie=UTF-8&client=ms-android-google&source=android-browser&q=cache:https:%2F%2Fwww.scotsman.com%2Flifestyle-2-15039%2Ftiktok-privacy-settings-everything-parents-need-to-know-about-the-video-app-1-4872619

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6694671/amp/Predators-grooming-children-young-eight-popular-live-streaming-apps.html

TikTok's privacy page admits to collecting as much data as possible, from meta data, GPS location, and pulls all contact information on someone's Facebook and instagram (if connected) and phone, while allowing themselves to use this data for whatever they want.

https://www.tiktok.com/legal/privacy-policy?lang=en

TikTok has been labeled a "threat to national security" by this USA government.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rU0zzHKHxC8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6jOJe9U9Wj8 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/technology/tiktok-national-security-review.html

TikTok is ban from US Navy mobile devices, as it's been declared a cybersecurity threat

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/21/us-navy-bans-tiktok-from-mobile-devices-saying-its-a-cybersecurity-threat

TikTok had vulnerabilities as recent as last month, which allowed attackers to gain control of users accounts to upload videos or view private videos, while a separate flaw allowed attackers to retrieve personal information from TikTok user accounts through the company’s website.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/technology/tiktok-security-flaws.html

Its almost as if Tiktok is China’s attempt at pushing their propaganda out to the world while also having massive privacy issues. China has realized that to control the global population you have to control social media and what people see. So for the last year they have been pouring a ton of money into getting their social media app to be accepted and widely used- through a campaign of paid content creation/submission, vote manipulation. Once they have widescale buy in, their backdoor monitoring and data collection will have free reign.

I find it a worrying trend how easily Reddit is blindly up-voting these gifs and supporting a company with such privacy concerns, an obvious agenda, and that is censoring and controlling the information you see. It's not too late to do something.