TikTok is THE destination for mobile videos. In early 2026, the United States and China approved a deal transferring operational control of TikTok’s US business to a joint venture led by Oracle and Silver Lake, following a 2024 US law requiring ByteDance to divest the platform over national security concerns. New Zealand Police Commissioner Andrew Coster praised the platform for taking a “socially-responsible stance” against gangs. A TikTok spokesperson reiterated the platform’s efforts to countering “violent” and “hateful” organizations’ content and cooperating with police.
It hosts user-submitted videos, which range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. The developer, TikTok Ltd., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. ■ Explore videos, just one scroll awayWatch all types of videos, from Comedy, Gaming, DIY, Food, Sports, Memes, and Pets, to Oddly Satisfying, ASMR, and everything in between. TikTok offers you real, interesting, and fun videos that will make your day.
The deal was completed by January 22, 2026, with investors including Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX, and others including the personal investment entity for Michael Dell will own more than 80% of the new venture, while ByteDance retained 19.9% ownership. The day before the impending ban, California-based conversational search engine company Perplexity AI submitted a bid for a merger with TikTok US. In January 2025, Chinese officials began preliminary talks about potentially selling TikTok’s US operations to Elon Musk if the app faced an impending ban due to national security concerns. In March 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that TikTok’s growth in the ruhtinas US had stagnated.
Australian Information Commissioner inquiry
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- Additionally, the app features a dashboard with statistics on how often the app is opened, how much time is spent browsing it and when the browsing occurs.
- The app expanded its parental controls feature called “Family Pairing” in September 2020 to provide parents and guardians with educational resources to understand what children on TikTok are exposed to.
- Another employee noted that working at the company caused her to seek marriage therapy and lose an unhealthy amount of weight.
- TikTok executives and representatives have noted and made aware to advertisers on the platform that users have poor attention spans.
- The platform has also been used to spread misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, such as clips from Plandemic.
- Concerns have been raised about the potential control and influence of the Chinese government over TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, in particular the extraterritorial implications of China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law.
In 2020, TikTok updated their terms of service to ban content that promotes “premium sexual content”, impacting a large number of adult content creators. TikTok is regularly used by sex workers to promote pornographic content sold on platforms such as OnlyFans. In 2020, digital media companies such as Group Nine Media and Global used TikTok increasingly, focusing on tactics such as brokering partnerships with TikTok influencers and developing branded content campaigns. Existing sellers on FeetFinder said that the videos often misrepresented how “easy” it is to make money from posting feet pictures. In 2022, it was reported that a trend called “de-influencing” had become popular on the platform as a backlash to influencer marketing. TikTok reportedly made as much as a 70% commission on some of them, a figure that the company disputed.
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They have also labeled a potential ban on the app an assault on freedom of speech, including Republican congressmen Rand Paul and Thomas Massie. State bans only affect government employees and do not prohibit civilians from having or using the app on their personal devices. On 30 December 2022, President Joe Biden signed the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, prohibiting the use of the app on devices owned by the federal government, with some exceptions. Recruiters had been using the app to help fill quotas, and some continue to maintain a level of engagement through their personal accounts. On 6 November 2024, Canada ordered TikTok to shut down its offices and subsidiary company (TikTok Technology Canada, Inc.) in the country due to national security concerns, but access to the app was not banned. On 7 March 2025, the shutdown was officially enacted after the Albanian Cabinet cited concerns over the app’s role in promoting violence and bullying among children.
- Musical.ly was a social media video platform that allowed users to create short lip-sync and comedy videos, initially released in August 2014.
- New Zealand Police Commissioner Andrew Coster praised the platform for taking a “socially-responsible stance” against gangs.
- A new subsidiary, TikTok US Data Security Inc. (USDS), was created to manage user data, software code, back-end systems, and content moderation.
- In response to the allegations, the company noted that they were committed to allowing employees “support and flexibility”.
- Vox noted in 2018 that bullies and trolls were relatively rare on TikTok compared to other platforms.
- The consumption of alcohol, full or partial nudity, LGBT, and intersex contents were restricted even in places where they are legal.
In January 2020, Check Point Research discovered a vulnerability through which a hacker could spoof TikTok’s official SMS messages and replace them with malicious links to gain access to user accounts. TikTok has faced criticism for transferring European user data to servers in the United States. A data scientist said US user data were emailed to ByteDance workers in China to identify viewer interests. It would also digitally sign software code, approve updates, and oversee content moderation and recommendation. A 2024 unclassified threat assessment by the Director of National Intelligence said “TikTok accounts run by a Chinese propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates” during the 2022 United States elections. Whether similar information will remain exempt from being treated as “protected user data” is being negotiated with Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
In 2025, a Canadian investigation found that TikTok had collected sensitive personal data from children in violation of federal privacy laws. In March 2025, the ICO opened another investigation into TikTok concerning its use of children’s personal information to recommend content to them. In April 2023, the ICO imposed a £12.7 million fine on TikTok for misusing children’s data.
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In other cases, however, Instagram and YouTube showed higher rates of pro-China content than TikTok. By searching for four keywords—Uyghur, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Tiananmen, the researchers found that TikTok returned a higher percentage of positive, neutral, or irrelevant content related to human rights in China. ByteDance said its early guidelines were global and aimed at reducing online harassment and divisiveness when its platforms were still growing.
Users also can set specific videos to either “public”, “friends only”, or “private” regardless if the account is private or not. Content is curated by TikTok’s artificial intelligence depending on the content a user liked, interacted with, or searched. On 18 April 2024, Notes first released to users in Canada and Australia for limited testing. Many platforms and services, including YouTube Shorts, began to imitate TikTok’s format and recommendation page.
Wegovy, a drug that has been specifically approved for treating obesity, also became popular on the platform after Elon Musk credited it for helping him lose weight. A 2025 meta-analysis found that use of TikTok was correlated with symptoms of anxiety and depression, with stronger links in females and users under 24 years old. Some users were able to circumvent TikTok filters by writing in code or using unconventional spelling. Daily hours of entertainment screen media (Social Medias) may displace healthy behaviors such as socializing face to face, chores, hobbies, homework, family meals time, exercise, and sufficient sleep. A trend making fun of autism eventually created a huge backlash, even on the platform itself, and the company ended up removing the hashtag altogether. In February 2024, the European Commission launched an investigation into TikTok for potential violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA), involving content aiming at children and advertising transparency.
Potential data collection by the Chinese government
TikTok said that the tracking method suggested by the report would not be feasible because precise GPS information is not collected by the platform. In October 2022, Forbes reported that a team at ByteDance planned to surveil certain US citizens for undisclosed reasons. A third party will oversee the cybersecurity policies, data flows, and personnel access independently of TikTok. Another said TikTok had to employ better data collection practices than Meta or Google due to the scrutiny it received. TikTok responded by saying that Project Texas already is a re-engineering of the app and that the former employee left in 2022 before the project specifications were finalized. In March 2023, a former employee of the company said Project Texas did not go far enough and that a complete “re-engineering” would be needed.
Project Clover
In June 2022, TikTok introduced the ability to set a maximum uninterrupted screen time allowance, after which the app blocks off the ability to navigate the feed. Insomnia is considered a strong mediator between screen media time and mental health symptoms which implies that engaging in screen time pushes out adequate sleep and leads to decreased mental health. Their short attention spans posed a challenge for TikTok to pivot towards longer content formats.
In March 2023, TikTok introduced a dedicated feed for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content. Creators who posted saying that they would not be changing their content, such as Green, were met with significant criticism. These creators would often attend red carpet premieres of movies and interview the celebrities in attendance, which was the subject of significant debate as some considered the questions the creators asked to be disrespectful. However, as reported by The New York Times, these people often do not see themselves necessarily as film critics. The procedure involves surgically removing fat from the cheeks in order to give the face a slimmer and more chiseled appearance.