NPR: Unpacking TikTok Scrutiny (ft. Jen Golbeck)
U.S. officials have raised concerns that user data could be accessed by the Chinese government.
A growing number of U.S. lawmakers are joining the TikTok platform, despite concerns about the Chinese-owned social media platform’s security. According to a report from the New York Post, more than two dozen members of Congress have signed up for accounts on the app to help engage with younger voters. The app has been under scrutiny from U.S. officials, who raised concerns that user data could be accessed by the Chinese government. Despite these concerns, TikTok users and content creators continue to grow in popularity within the United States.
College of Information Studies (INFO) Professor Jen Golbeck commented that access to private information via the app is a legitimate concern, but that concern should also be there for social accounts run by U.S.-based companies like Meta.
“So why are we talking just about TikTok and not about any other ones?” Golbeck asks. “That makes it feel like this is more kind of anti-China posturing than an actual concern about the very real problem of intrusive data collection.”
Read the full article here. Written by Ariana Figueroa and published on January 23, 2023 by NPR.