TikTok’s global expansion ambitions are in trouble.
TikTok’s size has been challenged by staff exchanges, and some countries are questioning the platform over data security.
On July 19, the head of monetization for Tik Tok in the US, David Ortiz, announced his resignation. His role at LinkedIn’s short video network was “eliminated as part of a major restructuring,” he said.
Ortiz, who worked at Salesforce and Snap, joined TikTok in 2020. As one of the first employees outside of China. He was among the first major players to build a global engineering and product management team.
Let’s say a day before WiredTikTok has warned of future layoffs for workers in the US and UK. Elsewhere in Europe, layoffs are beginning to make waves from within.
The Tik Tok logo is located on the beach in Cannes, France. See: Reuters
There were also personnel changes at higher levels. Last week, short-form video network ByteDance announced that Roland Cloutier would be stepping down from his role as Director of Global Security and moving into a strategic advisory role beginning in September. He is replaced by Kim Albarella, who is currently in charge of security risks. .
TikTok’s new move comes amid concerns about TikTok’s data security practices in many markets. Last week, Italy’s data protection regulator announced that TikTok may have broken EU rules by serving targeted ads without users’ consent. A spokesman for Tik Tok later said that the company “has been trying to create a personalized experience” while “working to respect users’ privacy.”
July 16, base Bloomberg, TikTok CEO Chew Shouzi wrote in an email that the company’s employees in China can bypass security protocols to access certain US TikTok users’ information, including videos, public comments, and even deletion. Zi later acknowledged the issue but stressed that no information would be shared with the Chinese government.
On July 18, an investigation by Australia’s Internet Security Agency 2.0 found that TikTok was collecting “excessive amounts of user data.” Australian Financial Report. An Internet 2.0 expert analyzed and found that the ByteDance app checks the device at least once an hour and constantly tries to access contacts even after the user logs out. “The data their app collects is far less than other popular software,” TikTok replied.
This rollout and test of Internet 2.0 has prompted Australian policymakers to question how TikTok protects overseas users’ data.
Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission, has also publicly advised Apple and Google to remove TikTok from two app stores, the App Store and the Play Store, because it “could pose a risk.” “.National Security Threats From Big Data Acquisition”.
To address the issues, TikTok is now setting up a new division in the US called Data Security. Michael Beckerman, head of public policy at TikTok America, said the split would “reduce the employee’s access to US user data and data sharing between regions, including data to China.”
He also said that to reassure users, TikTok plans to open a transparency center to explain the app’s source code framework and how the algorithm works in the short video network. The hearing is expected to take place in Los Angeles, Washington and Dublin, but a date has not been announced.
Bao Lam (Consequences SCMP)