In the Beijing offices of ByteDance, the company that owns TikTokoperates a department known as Internal Audit and Risk Control (in Italian it would be Internal Inspection and Risk Control): the task of the team, led by Song Ye and which reports directly to Rubo Liang, one of the co-founders, is to investigate possible conduct incorrect by employees and former employees. The infringements investigated include the dissemination of confidential information, conflicts of interest or the abuse of company resources.
According to as reported in a Forbes investigation (which has viewed ByteDance confidential documents), this department would however have planned to use TikTok to collect information on some specific US citizens who had never had any relationship with the company, for the purpose of monitoring their movements, for example. It is not clear, we always read in the investigation, whether these data have actually been collectedbut it is clear that the mere possibility that something like this has been planned in the ByteDance headquarters makes the worst fears of the US administration materialize.
Social and political
“Are the data of European TikTok users safe?”: The doubts of Lega and Fratelli d’Italia
by Emanuele Capone
Already the former president Trump had threatened to ban TikTok throughout the United States, while in recent months, under the Biden administration, the social network (which now has well over a billion users) entered into negotiations with the Foreign Investment Committee, in order to assess national security risks posed by foreign-owned companies. Like TikTok, in fact.
At a time when the tension between China and the United States is only increasing, President Biden also signed an executive order focused on foreign companies that could potentially “monitor, track and target individuals or groups of people, with a negative impact on national security”.
The risk, according to the investigation, is that this has already happened or has at least been planned: “The internal inspection team uses a data request system known to employees as the Green Channel – Forbes reads – Documents and records show how this Green Channel was used to obtain information on US citizens “.
To these accusations, TikTok ha replied via Twitterdenying ever using the app to target (as suspected) government members, activists or journalists, showing them different content than other users, and having collected data via GPS. In reality, the Forbes investigation never refers to GPS data, also because information on the location of specific people can also be obtained through the IP address, the wifi networks used and more.
It wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened: in the past, both Uber and Facebook monitored the position of reporters who dealt professionally with the two companies, while Uber would always have provided some politicians and officials with a different version of the application in an attempt to avoid fines related to certain infractions (a system known as Greyballwell explained in the series Super Pumpedvisible on Paramount Plus).
For their part, second as documented by BuzzFeed last June, Chinese employees of TikTok have previously had access to US user data. And it is precisely to prevent such things from happening again that society has Project Texas plan launched in Julywhich will lead to storing TikTok user data on servers physically located in the United States and access to which would be restricted “to authorized personnel, based on protocols that are being developed with the US government”, as explained by the company in a letter sent to Congress.
The curiosity
Tik Tok loses the scepter: Be Real is the most downloaded app in the USA
by Francesco Marino
Is all this enough to shield the data of US and Western citizens from Beijing’s prying eyes? Beyond the undeniable importance of this information, there are other aspects to consider: for example, the algorithm of TikTok could be manipulated to hide specific arguments or to make propaganda favorable to China. Which is, however, what any other social network can theoretically do, even if it must be said that in China, the mix of government and companies it is much superior.
Furthermore, the Chinese government does not need to use TikTok to get their hands on Western user data: “There are hundreds of US-based companies that make money by selling information about you to anyone who wants it.” recalled for example Gizmodo. However, the enormous diffusion of a Chinese social network also in Europe and the USA poses unprecedented challenges to the host nations. And what has been documented in the most recent investigations is yet another demonstration of this.