Transcript
We have to do something about TikTok. TikTok CEO is about to testify to Congress, but he already released the 5,000 word testimony that he's going to give. So let's go over it. Normally I do this with scientific research articles, but this is pretty relevant right now. So he starts off by talking about essentially how TikTok has enriched the lives of all sorts of American individuals and businesses, book talk with more than 100 billion views, his connected readers across the globe. Some, let's see, Jesse Whittington had been making soap as a hobby. He highlights some nice individual creators. but now he gets into the meat of it.
So, first he talks about the four primary concerns that committee members had, which is minor safety, data privacy, and security, real world harms from online activities and risks of foreign content manipulation. All definitely concerns. And he immediately starts off with saying, we're going to make four commitments as a company. We're going to keep safety, particularly for teenagers, a top priority. We'll have firewall protected U.S. user data, will remain a platform for free expression and not be tied to any sort of government, be fully transparent and have independent monitoring. That's all pretty good.
But let's get into the details of how they actually plan on doing this. First up, transparency. So one thing I thought was pretty cool is how every quarter we release a community guidelines enforcement report. These reports contain detailed information about the type and volume of content we remove and twice a year we also disclose requests that we receive from law enforcement and governments, i.e., yeah, they're removing all sorts of content, but at least we can tell what it is and have some sort of insight into how it's happening. Some people can. I wish I knew more.
And as of last month, This is super cool. We have launched a research API that allows U.S.-based academic researchers to more easily analyze public content posted to the platform. I am super excited for this. I wish I could have access. As a TikToker, I probably can't. But I'm really excited to see what happens when we can actually start getting research papers written about the stuff that happens on TikTok.
Moving on. All right, minor safety. I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but basically people under 13 are directed to a separate curated viewing experience. I didn't really know much about what goes on the lower ages. So that's pretty cool. on other people's videos, message with others, or maintain profile or followers, and no advertisements are shown to them. Okay. And then for accounts registered to teens under 16, they're set to private by default, and they're also prevented from sending direct messages, and their content is ineligible for recommendation into the 4U feed. That sort of sucks for them, but I guess it's a good thing for overall protecting minors. And only accounts registered to people over 18 can host a live stream. That's definitely a good thing.
There's a bunch more, but that's not what we're all really here for. Also, TikTok is integrated to hash sharing web services for the National Center! missing and exploited children. Basically, that means they're partnering with an independent organization that helps them to detect any sort of exploitative and predatory content, which is definitely good. Bringing it outside folks, always nice.
Now let's get into the need of it. Data privacy. So first, he says we collect a limited amount of information when people set up account such as date of birth and username and either phone number or email address. We do not collect precise or approximate GPS information from users. So no, they're not tracking anyone. And the way the iPhone is set up, they can't even get other access. So basically, the main data is really their TikTok browsing history about all of the things they like and dislike rather than any other external data that they have. Now, that data is still extremely important, but it's not like they're spying on your phone in any other way.
He talks about owning up to their mistakes where there was the little snafu with certain TikTok employees last year, but hopefully that one happened again. So now we get into the fun stuff, keeping TikTok safe for all. Actually, that's not the most fun stuff, but essentially they say TikTok spent approximately a billion dollars of just monitoring content violation. In the third quarter, we remove 96.5% violent content before receiving any reports from users or others, meaning their automated content review process when you upload a video is working pretty well. I, for one, can say that it's very aggressive. I had so many videos flagged as a content violation that have no actual need to be flagged, but I guess better to flag more things than do a few things. But we all know about this.
Now on to the new stuff. The centerpiece for our work is called Project Texas. This is on data security. Project Texas, and it's going to address the primary concern that everyone's been raising. So they've spent $1.5 billion to date on implementation, and we formed a special purpose subsidiary TikTok U.S. Data Security Incorporated that currently has nearly 1,500 full-time employees. And what is this? It's we have contracted with Oracle and industry leader and cloud-based services to store TikTok's user data. So none of our data is currently being stored, or will in the future be stored outside of America. And USDS is running on our recommendation system for users which determines what appears on the 4U feed. Meaning all of the recommendations going to our TikTok for you page are coming from Oracle servers located in the US and the data from it are all of our interactions are being stored in the US and they've begun the process of deleting historical protected user data stored on non-Oracle servers and expect that to be completed later this year. Meaning that by the end of the year, all of US user data will be stored locally on US servers audited by Oracle and they're actually going to be auditing the code of TikTok as well.
So there's no hidden surprises. They can look at exactly what is going on. And data access will be subject to information security controls that will be approved by both a U.S. government-approved third-party monitor and a third-party auditor. So where all that data is going, the code that underlying it, and everything in between, fully transparent, audited, and staying in the U.S. And now he starts to end with a nice little conviction that we do not believe that a ban hurts American small businesses, damages the country's economy, sounds as the voices of over 150 Americans, Banning it is not the problem. Even if you do ban it or sell it off, you still have the issue of data can be sold elsewhere. So instead, on a systemic level, if TikTok is going to be a thing, they need to do what they are doing, which is implement transparency and data securing. So far so good.
Finally, he concludes with addressing certain myths about TikTok. First is that people think it's beholden to the Chinese government. And there are certain aspects of this that I found very surprising. Sure, headquarters of Los Angeles and Singapore, TikTok is not available in mainland China. used app, just partially Chinese-owned. And speaking of Chinese-owned, TikTok's parent! company, BikDance, was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs, but Bikdance is a privately held global company with roughly 60% owned by global institutional investors such as BlackRock, General Atlantic, and Sequoia, all of which are American companies. And that data, in 2021, a report from Citizen Lab and internationally renowned security research laboratory found there was no overt data transmission by TikTok to the Chinese government, and that TikTok did not contact So it seems like independent audits so far have said our data is not going to China. Hopefully this will bode very well for TikTok going forward because I, for one, would like to keep posting on this platform.
That being said, it is still ideal for all creators to have direct access to their audience, and the best way to do that is with a direct newsletter. So if you are a creator, you should create one, have access, be able to send your videos to your followers. And if you guys like learning about the latest scientific research and how to improve your lives based on data, then sign up. for mine here.
Additional notes
Caption: Warning: this is a bit long, but i wanted to cover all the interestint bits ASAP and not waste time overediting #tiktokceo #tiktok