US headache over Tik Tok ‘disaster’
The United States is concerned about national security issues surrounding TikTok, and lawmakers are scrambling to regulate the short-lived video network.
Earlier this month in 2021, Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio and President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan discussed China and industrial policy. During the meeting, Rubio raised concerns about Beijing’s influence on TikTok.
In A security guard at ByteDance at TikTok headquarters in Beijing in 2020. Photo: Reuters
TikTok has been repeatedly polled by former President Donald Trump’s video network ByteDance for endangering US national security by sharing information about its citizens with China.
The meeting was just one of many discussions about TikTok since President Joe Biden took office. Sen. Mark Warner, chairman of the Democratic Intelligence Committee, said he had “active discussions” with the government about the video application.
Experts say the rising number of Tik Tok meetings shows how tense Washington is. In recent months, dissatisfaction has only grown when Rubio and Warner called on the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the platform, and the US Federal Communications Commission (FTC) regulator FCC publicly proposed Tiki to remove talc. From Playstore and Appstore.
On Aug. 16, a group of Republican senators asked TikTok to answer who can access the app’s data. On the same day, US House of Representatives officials advised their staffers not to use TikTok, citing security concerns.
With more than a billion users, Tik Tok has become an important tool for broadcasting cultural events in different countries, including the United States. According to a Pew Research report last week, 67% of 13-17 year olds now use ByteDance’s short video network.
TikTok tries to solve the problem. A conversation with CNN Last month, TikTok’s US senior director and the social network’s chief lobbyist, Michael Beckerman, said TikTok’s data collection was “very small” compared to other social apps. To address security concerns, the company confirmed it will store US user data on Oracle servers in the US and delete backups in Singapore and Virginia.
TikTok’s investigation is now considered “very aggressive” as of 2020. Trump forced the platform to be owned by an American company. The White House is set to finalize legislation to regulate apps like TikTok and block them from broadcasting domestic data. Abroad.
National Security Council spokeswoman Saloni Sharma said, “The Biden administration is focused on platforms that have come to control and limit intelligence gathering on Americans, including China.”
US Election Day “Threat”
Mid-term presidential elections will be held in the United States in November. According to experts, TikTok can become a platform full of lies and fake news and lead to many consequences like Facebook and Twitter. Video and audio, two types of content that are harder to censor than text and photos, are more likely to spread disinformation.
“With such a short timeframe and limited textual content, users don’t have enough time to verify the accuracy of the information, let alone its distribution to hundreds of millions of users,” said Harvard-Kennedy researcher Kayleigh Fagan. School. New York time.
Basically, Tik Tok was originally only intended for short “pure” entertainment videos. However, over time there has been an increase in political content, including fake information from fake videos featuring fake politicians.
Earlier, a Tik Tok representative said in 2020 it removed 350,000 videos in the second half that spread false information about the election and visited the media. Video Network’s content filter blocked approximately 441,000 unnecessary untitled videos. While Tik Tok handles this well in some areas, Tik Tok still has major problems controlling data on elections in France or Australia. Experts say the US may face a similar problem.
“At least Facebook and Twitter still have some transparency. But with TikTok, things are harder to control because the content is harder to identify,” Indiana University professor Filippo Menchzer said of TikTok’s content censorship. New York time. “This will only be resolved if TikTok releases its secret data or algorithm.”
The ByteDance Short Video Network does not currently disclose the number of content moderators. follow up Business Insider, the company employs many third parties for this purpose. However, according to recent reports, they face overwork, psychological trauma, phobias or other mental health issues in their jobs.
Experts estimate that Tik Tok censorship will increase significantly by November. They also have trouble identifying spicy political content.
Bao Lam Artificially