The top Republican on the Senate Intel Committee has asked DOJ to investigate statements that the TikTok CEO made to Congress, in light of recent reporting by Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/06/01/tiktok-ceo-justice-department-investigation-china-security/?sh=654ea3a31927
For the magazine (my first cover story!), we profiled Lisa Su, CEO of semiconductor company AMD, who has led one of the greatest comebacks in Silicon Valley history. Now she's taking on Nvidia, the top dog in AI chips.
With my colleague Iain Martin.
A TikTok spox said “we remain confident in the accuracy of Shou’s testimony.”
TT and ByteDance didn’t answer Qs about whether Americans’ sensitive financial info is/has been stored in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/05/30/tiktok-creators-data-security-china/?sh=666836417048
TikTok has been touting plans to cordon off EU user data from China in Project Clover.
Storing EU creators’ sensitive financial info in China, past or present, could be a problem under GDPR:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/05/30/tiktok-creators-data-security-china/?sh=666836417048
US and EU users in TikTok’s Creator Fund have given the company SSNs and tax IDs so they can get paid.
Internal docs show that info has been stored in China + accessible by employees there: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/05/30/tiktok-creators-data-security-china/?sh=666836417048
NEW: TikTok has stored the most sensitive financial info of its biggest stars on servers in China.
The CEO told Congress “American data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/05/30/tiktok-creators-data-security-china/?sh=54d434907048
If you've ever been paid by TikTok — as a creator, or a vendor, or a business partner — your financial info (SSN, tax ID, etc) may have been stored in China. From @alexlevine.bsky.social
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/05/30/tiktok-creators-data-security-china/?sh=78090df27048
Docs show ByteDance is tracking convos about the following on its apps:
Chinese power
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet
Uyghurs
US-China
Science + Medicine
Competitors
Western culture
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/05/05/tiktok-bytedance-sensitive-words-suppression-china/?sh=57d0852f69c9
NEW: Forbes obtained internal ByteDance documents showing *hundreds* of lists of “sensitive words” it tracks across its social media apps.
We’ve published them in full here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/05/05/tiktok-bytedance-sensitive-words-suppression-china/?sh=57d0852f69c9
Yes, and we get into this-- the fact that many social media companies (including in U.S.) have tools+policies aimed at filtering out some language and content.
Difference here being that ByteDance lists appear to go well beyond what's standard (like tracking hate speech, child harms, terrorism etc)
TikTok and ByteDance are collecting data on the “hit rate” of "sensitive" or "prohibited" words—including info about the U.S. users posting them.
That could be dangerous: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/05/01/tiktok-bytedance-suppression-tool-trump-china-uyghurs/?sh=41723263434c
I visited the Transparency Center in LA!
Can say with certainty that these issues did not come up there and that it's a stretch to say the center allows visitors to audit the app's source code.
What we saw hardly scratched the surface, and notably missing was any info about ByteDance.
ByteDance's moderation word lists seem to go far beyond what's standard for social media companies.
Read our investigation here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/05/01/tiktok-bytedance-suppression-tool-trump-china-uyghurs/?sh=5a2c74b1434c
New: Forbes found the below vocabulary lists in ByteDance's "sensitive words" tool that is run by staff in China and dictates what users can and cannot see on its platforms.
50+ lists in this tool have “TikTok” or "US" in their names. TikTok denied these ones had ever applied to TikTok:
New: ByteDance's "sensitive words" tool run by staff in China appears to use vocabulary lists to detect or suppress posts about everything from American TikTok competitors to marginalized Uighurs to Trump:
https://bit.ly/427bTHK
ByteDance has “sensitive word lists,” with names like “Trump Directed Prohibited Words” and “Special prohibited words for Xi and Peng”
Over 50 of the lists explicitly mention TikTok or the US.
TikTok denies they’ve ever been used.
From the increíble @alexlevine.bsky.social
Is this thing on?
