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On 23 January 2018, the TikTok app ranked first among free application downloads on app stores in Thailand and other countries. Employees have reported that multiple overlaps exist between TikTok and ByteDance in terms of personnel management and product development. Its parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, is owned by founders and Chinese investors, other global investors, and employees. Many other countries limit TikTok’s use on ruhtinas government-issued devices for security or privacy reasons.
In June 2021, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order revoking the Trump administration ban on TikTok, and instead ordered the Secretary of Commerce to investigate the app to determine if it poses a threat to US national security. In January 2020, the United States Army and Navy banned TikTok on government devices after the Defense Department labeled it a security risk. An analysis estimated that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, could gain between $2.46 billion and $3.38 billion in advertising revenue if TikTok were banned.

TikTok Studio

It also announced that US user traffic would now be routed through Oracle Cloud and that backup copies would be deleted from other servers. Following the reports, TikTok confirmed that employees in China could have access to US data. As a consequence, the Senate Intelligence Committee including US lawmakers Mark Warner and Marco Rubio called for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate ByteDance and whether TikTok had misled them.
These trends amassed popularity in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many people spent more time cooking at home while engaging with social media for entertainment. A viral TikTok trend known as “devious licks” involves students vandalizing or stealing school property and posting videos of the action on the platform. “Any Song” by R&B and rap artist Zico became number one on the Korean music charts due to the popularity of the #anysongchallenge, where users dance to the choreography of the song. Other creators rose to fame after the platform merged with musical.ly on 2 August 2018. This marked the company’s first instance of withdrawing its music from a major platform, in contrast to Warner Music, which had recently renewed its own licensing deal with TikTok.
The study compares data from before TikTok even existed to show the app has fewer hashtags about historically sensitive topics, distorting the findings. They have been replaced by versions customized by local teams for users in different regions. TikTok moderators were instructed to suppress posts from “For You” recommendations if the users shown were deemed “too ugly, poor, or disabled”. Other human rights activists have also said that their TikTok videos discussing human rights violations of the Uyghurs have been taken down.

Features

In May 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that former employees complained about TikTok tracking users who had viewed LGBT-related content. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) actively recruits influencers on TikTok and other social media platforms, often with what commentators have dubbed “Thirst traps”. In October 2020, the e-commerce platform Shopify added TikTok to its portfolio of social media platforms, allowing online merchants to sell their products directly to consumers on TikTok.

• They have also labeled a potential ban on the app an assault on freedom of speech, including Republican congressmen Rand Paul and Thomas Massie.
• However, it has received criticism for not paying royalties to artists whose music is used on the platform.
• Users also can set specific videos to either “public”, “friends only”, or “private” regardless if the account is private or not.
• In September 2023, the DPC fined TikTok €345 million for violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) vis-à-vis the mishandling of children data.
• After merging with musical.ly in August, downloads increased and TikTok became the most downloaded app in the US in October 2018, which musical.ly had done once before.

Doctors suggested that the cause may be a social one as users who consumed content showcasing various tics would sometimes develop tics of their own, akin to mass psychogenic illness. Many were also concerned with the app affecting users’ attention spans due to the short-form nature of the content. ByteDance responded by adding a kids-only mode to TikTok which blocks the upload of videos, the building of user profiles, direct messaging, and commenting on others’ videos, while still allowing the viewing and recording of content. In August 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported that TikTok tracked Android user data, including MAC addresses and IMEIs, with a tactic in violation of Google’s policies. The company said its algorithm tracks interests not identity, and non-LGBT users also view such content.

Australian Information Commissioner inquiry

The Ministry of Education (Taiwan) has warned against the harmful impact of TikTok and related app RedNote on body image and ensuing self harm related to weight loss especially in teenagers. As of March 2025update, strong scientific understanding of TikTok’s effects on user’s mental health “remains elusive”. In 2021, the platform revealed that it will be introducing a feature that will prevent teenagers from receiving notifications past their bedtime. Additionally, the app features a dashboard with statistics on how often the app is opened, how much time is spent browsing it and when the browsing occurs.

• US lawmakers wanting to ban TikTok accused the platform of pushing pro-Hamas and pro-Palestine content.
• In June 2022, TikTok introduced the ability to set a maximum uninterrupted screen time allowance, after which the app blocks off the ability to navigate the feed.
• TikTok has previously worked to remove graphic content from its platform, including a suicide video that circulated in September 2020, which had appeared among the recommended clips of TikTok’s For You section.
• In 2020, Charli D’Amelio, the most-followed person on TikTok at the time, also made a #NoseJobCheck video to show the results of her surgery to repair a broken nose.
• On 22 January 2021, the Italian Data Protection Authority demanded that TikTok temporarily suspend Italian users whose age could not be established.
• A 2024 unclassified threat assessment by the Director of National Intelligence said “TikTok accounts run by a Chinese propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates” during the 2022 United States elections.

TikTok Effects We Love

Jim Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said TikTok would have no right to appeal requests for data made by the Chinese government. TikTok is also able to track information about web users even if they are not users of the TikTok app. Other information collected includes users inferred interests based on the content they view as well as content created by users.

Civil society groups warn that these apps push users down “rabbit holes” and then surround them in an “information cocoon”. The company will no longer send push notifications after 9 pm to users aged between 13 and 15. TikTok has also received criticism for enabling children to purchase coins which they can send to other users. TikTok executives and representatives have noted and made aware to advertisers on the platform that users have poor attention spans. Nonetheless, several users have reported cyberbullying via features such as Duet or React, which is used to interact with followers. In August 2022, software engineer and security researcher Felix Krause found that in-app browsers from TikTok and other platforms contained codes for keylogger functionality but did not have the means to further investigate whether any data was tracked or recorded.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that doctors experienced a surge in reported cases of tics, tied to an increasing number of TikTok videos from content creators with Tourette syndrome. Since 2021, it has been reported that accounts engaging with contents related to suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders were shown more similar videos. TikTok has previously worked to remove graphic content from its platform, including a suicide video that circulated in September 2020, which had appeared among the recommended clips of TikTok’s For You section.

User Data Privacy

TikTok’s own investigation found more than 12,000 fake accounts, including ones using additional languages such as English and Italian. In December 2023, BBC News reported that it had discovered nearly 800 fake TikTok accounts promoting Russian propaganda and disinformation. Tracking Exposed, a user data rights group, learned of what was likely a technical glitch that became exploited by pro-Russia posters.
Users also can set specific videos to either “public”, “friends only”, or “private” regardless if the account is private or not. Content is curated by TikTok’s artificial intelligence depending on the content a user liked, interacted with, or searched. On 18 April 2024, Notes first released to users in Canada and Australia for limited testing. Many platforms and services, including YouTube Shorts, began to imitate TikTok’s format and recommendation page.