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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 2 March 2020
Teens love the video app TikTok. Do they love it too much?

By TALI ARBEL use, just download the app Nas X, whose "Old Town in a country hemmed in by TikTok has fleshed out its
AP Technology Writer and start swiping through Road" is the longest-run- censorship, have largely community guidelines on
From the perspective of videos. You don't have to ning No. 1 song in the his- been confined to a domes- what's allowed. It offers a
teens, TikTok is a major new restricted mode for inap-
outlet for self-expression, propriate content and lim-
one proudly home to the ited accounts for under-13
silly, the loud and the weird. users, although it doesn't
To others, the Chinese- verify ages. Last year, the
owned online video service company agreed to a
is an unnerving black box $5.7 million U.S fine over
that could be sharing in- collecting personal infor-
formation with the Chinese mation from kids under
government, facilitating 13. The company says it
espionage, or just promot- deletes "wrongly created"
ing videos and songs some accounts, such as those of
parents consider lewd. (Tik- underage users with fake
Tok denies the first two con- birthdates, when they're re-
cerns and says it's working ported by other users.
on the third.) But many security experts
Welcome to the bifurcated worry about the informa-
world of TikTok, an emerg- tion sucked up by the ser-
ing social-media power- vice. People's social con-
house that lets users cre- nections, biometric data
ate and share short videos, and interests that would
many no longer than 15 be useful to an advertiser
seconds. "That's where the could also assist a hostile
Gen Z party is," says Kory government in cultivating
Marchisotto, chief marketer spies or tracking dissidents,
for e.l.f. Cosmetics. "That's says John Dermody, a for-
where they're all hanging This Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020 photo shows the icon for TikTok taken in New York. mer official with the Na-
out." Associated Press tional Security Council and
There's little doubt that Tik- Department of Homeland
Tok users find it irresistible. Security.
But TikTok is also the subject friend anyone or search tory of Billboard's charts. tic audience. These national-security
of a U.S. national-security for anything to watch. If There are pranksters, funny TikTok's rise, fueled in part worries parallel a broader
review and a Pentagon you don't go looking for it, skits, behind-the-scenes of by ads on Facebook, Ins- U.S. security crackdown on
ban. U.S. lawmakers are you might not ever come fast-food operations and tagram and Snapchat, has Chinese companies and
worried about national se- across angry political dis- "glow-ups" — before-and- in turn shaken those U.S. President Donald Trump's
curity and censorship risks cussions, much less envy- after shots of someone services. The company be- trade war with China. A U.S.
posed by TikTok's Chinese generating vacation shots making themselves look hind Snapchat started list- national-security agency
ownership.TikTok draws so from friends. Instead, you'll cuter. Some are more ran- ing TikTok as a competitor is reviewing ByteDance's
much attention because likely to encounter a bar- dom: Kim Kardashian cook- in 2019. Facebook, which Musical.ly deal, while the
it's the first China-owned so- rage of funny, meme-y ing parodies? famously copies features of Army, Navy and Marine
cial-media service to make videos from total strang- Some users say TikTok is its rivals, launched a knock- Corps recently banned
serious inroads in the West. ers that TikTok spools up for more authentic than the off called Lasso in 2018 and service members and per-
It's a smash in the U.S. and you, personalizing the feed self-consciously pretty and added TikTok-ian video-ed- sonnel from installing Tik-
other countries, attracting as you go. polished Instagram. Emilie iting features to Instagram. Tok on government-issued
celebrities and companies Politics, of course, is still Richer, a 19-year-old from Beyond rivalries, concerns phones.
eager to reach kids and there; so is the social-media Simcoe, Ontario, says she range from the sexual na- Facebook CEO Mark Zuck-
young adults disconnect- plague of misinformation. uses Instagram for "photos ture of some videos to cen- erberg has criticized TikTok
ed from traditional media. TikTok says it prohibits harm- that look nice, or the good sorship by China's commu- for allegedly censoring pro-
The NFL has an account. So ful misinformation. things I'm doing" and TikTok nist government. tests. Newsreports have
do Chipotle, Reese With- TikTok makes money from to "get loose, make jokes, India and Indonesia tem- asserted that TikTok has
erspoon, and The Wash- ads, and sometimes the pull pranks and stuff, dress porarily banned TikTok be- banned videos and top-
ington Post. The U.S. Army campaigns aren't readily up weird." A TikTok video cause of worries about chil- ics in line with Beijing's own
previously used it to recruit identifiable as ads. Com- of Richer catching a pickle dren. Anastasia Basil, a Los censorship rules.
soldiers. panies can start hashtag- thrown into her mouth went Angeles writer whose chil- TikTok now insists that it
People have downloaded based "challenges" that viral in November. dren are 10 and 12, says she doesn't do so, nor would it
TikTok 1.65 billion times, the invite users to participate A Chinese startup, Byte- was upset by the explicit lyr- even if the Chinese govern-
analysis firm Sensor Tower by posting their own vid- Dance, launched TikTok ics in songs and "extremes ment asked it to. As for spy-
estimates. In 2019, it was eos, often incorporating a internationally over two of sexualized content" she ing, the company denies it
the second-most down- particular dance or dance years ago. It then bought saw. Her 10-year-old's best and says it stores U.S. user
loaded app in the Apple move. E.l.f. Cosmetics' Musical.ly, another Chi- friend loves TikTok, she says; data in the U.S. and Singa-
and Google app stores, "eyeslipsface" campaign, nese video service popular she told the friend's mother pore, not China.
trailing only WhatsApp. Re- for example, had people with teens in the U.S. and not to let Basil's daughter Not everyone buys that. The
search firm eMarketer esti- wink and purse their lips to Europe. ByteDance com- use it during sleepovers. Chinese government "can
mates that TikTok roughly go with the lyrics of an orig- bined the two, but kept TikTok is working hard to exert a fair amount of soft
doubled its U.S. user base inal song. Users created 3 TikTok separate from a ensure that it's a "safe and pressure" and get what it
to 37.2 million in 2019. million videos, with 4 billion twin service called Douyin, positive environment," says wants, says Chris Calabrese
To many users, what's spe- views. which it offers only in Chi- Kudzi Chikumbu, the com- of the U.S. tech watchdog
cial is TikTok's goofiness and The service has helped na. Until recently, Chinese pany's head of creator group Center for Democ-
sense of genuine fun. To launch musical stars like Lil social media services, built partnerships. racy & Technology.q