TikTok is owned by the famous Chinese conglomerate, ByteDance, and it has faced many criticisms over all these years to have a special bias towards the Chinese Communist Party. The app has long been accused of censoring the videos that may be incriminating to the Chinese government in any way possible. Since last year, the app has faced some major lawsuits with the US government on the basis of their allegations on the company being a national security threat. The US government has blamed that TikTok has been involved in intrusive data collection of the users in the US, and then for passing on this data to the Chinese government. Now, these are some serious allegations, and TikTok has always denied them. But recently, the company was questioned about the same things by Nusrat Ghani, a Conservative Member of British Parliament. They were asked about the content censorship policies especially for the Uighur Muslims of Xinjiang, and that prompted Elizabeth Kanter, the Director of government and public policies for TikTok UK to extend an invitation towards the British lawmakers.
Elizabeth Kanter told in an online broadcast that it is false that the company censors any content. In fact, she encouraged the British lawmakers and other people to open the app and search for terms like ‘Tiananmen Square,’ or look for content related to ‘Tibet.’ Everything is available now after the company revised its strict content moderation policies. As per her, now, even content related to Uighur Muslims is also available on TikTok.
She completely refuted the claims that the Chinese government has any influence on the moderation and censorship policies of the company. So, according to Kanter, British lawmakers should come and visit the company’s transparency center too, and they must see how the app’s algorithm works. This will give them a good idea about how the company actually functions, irrespective of the allegations it continuously faces.
Kanter accepted that previously, the company’s policies were rather strict to avoid all types of conflict on the forum. That was the reason why the content related to Uighur Muslims was quashed at that time. But now, it is available and there is a lot of other content that clearly shows that TikTok’s content moderation is not sensitive to any Chinese political affiliations, neither do they only post content that favors China in any form.
Now, this is a solid move, and this invitation is a good gesture on TikTok’s part to show how open the company is and how keen they are to clarify their position and stance.
Elizabeth Kanter told in an online broadcast that it is false that the company censors any content. In fact, she encouraged the British lawmakers and other people to open the app and search for terms like ‘Tiananmen Square,’ or look for content related to ‘Tibet.’ Everything is available now after the company revised its strict content moderation policies. As per her, now, even content related to Uighur Muslims is also available on TikTok.
She completely refuted the claims that the Chinese government has any influence on the moderation and censorship policies of the company. So, according to Kanter, British lawmakers should come and visit the company’s transparency center too, and they must see how the app’s algorithm works. This will give them a good idea about how the company actually functions, irrespective of the allegations it continuously faces.
Kanter accepted that previously, the company’s policies were rather strict to avoid all types of conflict on the forum. That was the reason why the content related to Uighur Muslims was quashed at that time. But now, it is available and there is a lot of other content that clearly shows that TikTok’s content moderation is not sensitive to any Chinese political affiliations, neither do they only post content that favors China in any form.
Now, this is a solid move, and this invitation is a good gesture on TikTok’s part to show how open the company is and how keen they are to clarify their position and stance.
Photo: Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty Images
Via: Telegraph.
