A new investigation by the Mozilla Foundation is speaking about the drawbacks that TikTok’s low data variant called TikTok Lite brings.
According to the report, the app lacks some important security features that pose a major risk for users around the world.
Research experts highlighted how there is a vast difference between the regular platform and its low-budget variant and that’s a serious reason for alarm for users in terms of what they might be getting themselves into.
While it’s yet to be up for grabs in the US, there are plenty of emerging locations where it’s easily downloadable including some developed countries.
This is why security experts are ringing alarm bells on a series of things that are missing. This includes no labels for content made through AI, a lack of warning labels for hazardous behavior, and also how there are no health warnings. Similarly, no political content tags were found nor were there any misinformation alerts spotted on the app.
This is serious news, especially considering how the world braces for elections in many places and also when AI is trending around the globe. Hence, such actions could lead to an unwarranted spread of misinformation online, not to mention how the app is so popular with young age groups.
For so long, we’ve been seeing social media giant TikTok speak so much on this front including how it was doing its absolute best to beat misinformation and the long list of AI deepfakes that keep springing up each day. The question is why the same actions are not being taken on the app’s Lite version.
TikTok Lite isn’t blocking any kind of sensitive content with warning messages either as mentioned in this alarming report. It just cuts out video descriptions on some content displayed and is also missing a host of management features linked to screen time. Other preference settings such as users’ restricted mode that allows filtering of inappropriate videos were also missing which is another red flag for security researchers.
The trend taking place is exactly similar to that seen with a host of firms that are feeding into the likes of exploitation and capitalism. There are a host of unsafe offerings and substandard materials where a dumping ground is found in so many disadvantageous locations. Due to this, TikTok Lite users are more liable to be engulfed into getting exposed to dangerous and misleading material that is graphic or explicit in nature.
The Lite version of TikTok was noted as being downloaded nearly 12 million times by Android users in June this year alone. So as you can see, the popularity that this app holds is immense. Common nations where the app happens to be popular are UAE, South Africa, and Mexico. Pakistan, amongst others.
You’ll find the iOS variant more common in places like South Korea and Japan where the latter accounts for more than 82% of the entire userbase from where downloads arose last month.
The app promotes itself as the next best choice for those having 2G or 3G connections or devices that have difficulty running the regular or more powerful version of the platform.
Meanwhile, TikTok might agree that it’s lighter on the safety side of things, but they still insist that it can moderate content in the same way as it does with its regular counterpart. It added how many inaccuracies are found in studies that fail to deem it a safe option for the masses and also hailed the recent Mozilla findings as misleading.
Image: DIW-Aigen
Read next: FTC Alleges Big Firms Use Customer Data for Monetary Gains
According to the report, the app lacks some important security features that pose a major risk for users around the world.
Research experts highlighted how there is a vast difference between the regular platform and its low-budget variant and that’s a serious reason for alarm for users in terms of what they might be getting themselves into.
While it’s yet to be up for grabs in the US, there are plenty of emerging locations where it’s easily downloadable including some developed countries.
This is why security experts are ringing alarm bells on a series of things that are missing. This includes no labels for content made through AI, a lack of warning labels for hazardous behavior, and also how there are no health warnings. Similarly, no political content tags were found nor were there any misinformation alerts spotted on the app.
This is serious news, especially considering how the world braces for elections in many places and also when AI is trending around the globe. Hence, such actions could lead to an unwarranted spread of misinformation online, not to mention how the app is so popular with young age groups.
For so long, we’ve been seeing social media giant TikTok speak so much on this front including how it was doing its absolute best to beat misinformation and the long list of AI deepfakes that keep springing up each day. The question is why the same actions are not being taken on the app’s Lite version.
TikTok Lite isn’t blocking any kind of sensitive content with warning messages either as mentioned in this alarming report. It just cuts out video descriptions on some content displayed and is also missing a host of management features linked to screen time. Other preference settings such as users’ restricted mode that allows filtering of inappropriate videos were also missing which is another red flag for security researchers.
The trend taking place is exactly similar to that seen with a host of firms that are feeding into the likes of exploitation and capitalism. There are a host of unsafe offerings and substandard materials where a dumping ground is found in so many disadvantageous locations. Due to this, TikTok Lite users are more liable to be engulfed into getting exposed to dangerous and misleading material that is graphic or explicit in nature.
The Lite version of TikTok was noted as being downloaded nearly 12 million times by Android users in June this year alone. So as you can see, the popularity that this app holds is immense. Common nations where the app happens to be popular are UAE, South Africa, and Mexico. Pakistan, amongst others.
You’ll find the iOS variant more common in places like South Korea and Japan where the latter accounts for more than 82% of the entire userbase from where downloads arose last month.
The app promotes itself as the next best choice for those having 2G or 3G connections or devices that have difficulty running the regular or more powerful version of the platform.
Meanwhile, TikTok might agree that it’s lighter on the safety side of things, but they still insist that it can moderate content in the same way as it does with its regular counterpart. It added how many inaccuracies are found in studies that fail to deem it a safe option for the masses and also hailed the recent Mozilla findings as misleading.
Read next: FTC Alleges Big Firms Use Customer Data for Monetary Gains
