This led many creators to stop creating new content which they were not already contractually obligated to create. Some TikTok users criticized the trend for promoting an unobtainable beauty standard. In December 2022, it was reported that a cosmetic surgery procedure known as buccal fat removal was going viral on the platform. TikTok has banned the advertising of cosmetic surgeries on the platform but cosmetic surgeons are still able to reach large audiences using unpaid photo and video posts.
U.S. Federal Trade Commission
- 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.
- After merging with musical.ly in August, downloads increased and TikTok became the most downloaded app in the U.S. in October 2018, which musical.ly had done once before.
- Many platforms and services, including YouTube Shorts, began to imitate TikTok’s format and recommendation page.
- This is a concern as many of TikTok’s audience are younger children, whose brains are still developing.
- In November 2022, Australia’s medical regulatory agency, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) reported that there was a global shortage of the diabetes medication Ozempic.
- In June 2020, TikTok users and K-pop fans „claimed to have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets” for President Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma through communication on TikTok, contributing to „rows of empty seats” at the event.
TikTok creators participating in this trend made videos criticizing products promoted by influencers and asked their audiences not to buy products they did not need. In 2021, The New York Times reported that viral TikTok videos by young people relating the emotional impact of books on them, tagged with the label „BookTok”, significantly drove sales of literature. The platform’s algorithm also contributes to the influencer marketing potential, as it picks out content according to the user’s preference. In March 2024, the Italian Competition Authority fined TikTok €10 million for not protecting underage users adequately from harmful content such as the „French scar” challenge, which left heavy pinch marks on a person’s cheeks. As of 2021update, these individuals are considered Generation Z. Among these TikTok users, 90% said they used the app daily. TikTok tends to appeal to younger users, as 41% of its users are between the ages of 16 and 24.
These hashtags have amassed 4.6 million and 4.5 million posts, respectively, according to the platform. Food-related content on TikTok is often categorized under the hashtags #TikTokFood and #FoodTok. In 2023, a trend emerged where streamers acted as if they were video-game characters following prompts from their viewers. TikTok has taken measures to remove and prevent access to content displaying the trend. The song rose to popularity when musician Daniel Mertzlufft composed a backing track to the song. In 2020, Fleetwood Mac’s „Dreams” was used in a skating video and a recreation by Mick Fleetwood.
- In June 2021, TikTok updated its privacy policy to include potential collection of biometric data, including „faceprints and voiceprints”, for special effects and other purposes.
- As of 2021update, these individuals are considered Generation Z. Among these TikTok users, 90% said they used the app daily.
- TikTok has come under scrutiny due to data privacy violations, mental health concerns, misinformation, offensive content, addictive algorithm, and its role during the Gaza war.
- TikTok’s algorithm leverages this insight to present similar content, creating an environment that users often find hard to disengage from.
- Reporting in The Washington Post suggested that the virality of the letter had been limited prior to media coverage, having never trended on TikTok.
In November 2023, Osama bin Laden’s 2002 „Letter to the American people” went viral on TikTok and other social media. The company stated it banned praising Hamas and removed more than 775,000 videos and 14,000 livestreams. The popularity of pro-Palestine content has also been explained by the app’s younger user base, which has shifted its sympathy away from Israel towards the Palestinians. According to The Times of Israel, antisemitism at the company was „rampant” after the October 7 attacks, allowing anti-Jewish and anti-Israel content to increase on the platform.
ENTERTAINBe entertained and inspired by a global community of creators.Take video creation to the next level with special effects, filters, music, and more. 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. They have also labeled a potential ban on the app an assault on freedom of speech, including Republican congressmen Rand Paul and Thomas Massie.
Data Linked to You
In October 2022, TikTok was reported to be planning an expansion into the e-commerce market in the US, following the launch of TikTok Shop in the United Kingdom. In May 2021, TikTok appointed Shou Zi Chew as their new CEO who assumed the position from interim CEO Vanessa Pappas, following the resignation of Kevin A. Mayer on 27 August 2020. In the United States, Jimmy Fallon, Tony Hawk, and other celebrities began using the app in 2018.
Data Not Linked to You
In March 2022, The Washington Post reported that Facebook’s owner Meta Platforms paid Targeted Victory—a consulting firm backed by supporters of the U.S. In March 2024, The Information reported that it is an open secret among investors that TikTok loses billions of dollars annually. According to sources for The Wall Street Journal, the personnel move led to concerns from some TikTok employees and was reported to the office of U.S. In July 2023, Iranian Mehr News Agency reported „experts from Douyin” will meet Iranian business in Tehran to enable Iranian exports to China. It was also the most-downloaded app on Apple’s App Store in 2018 and 2019, surpassing Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. TikTok was downloaded over 104 million times on Apple’s App Store during the first half of 2018, according to data provided to CNBC by Sensor Tower.
Unlock TikTok’s hidden features
The app has spawned numerous viral trends, Internet celebrities, and music trends around the world. On 19 July 2023, TikTok Music was expanded for select users in Australia, Mexico and Singapore. However, a few days later, users on Twitter discovered that the software uses code from the open-source OBS Studio.
Wallcraft – Wallpapers live 4K
In September 2021, the Ireland Data Protection Commission (DPC) launched investigations into TikTok concerning the protection of minors’ data and transfers of personal data to China. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia reportedly subpoenaed information from ByteDance regarding its surveillance of journalists on TikTok. In December 2022, ByteDance confirmed after internal investigation that the data of two journalists and their close contacts had been accessed by its employees from China and the United States. 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 U.S. citizens for undisclosed reasons.
In response to the allegations, the company noted that they were committed to allowing employees „support and flexibility”. Another employee noted that working at the company caused her to seek marriage therapy and lose an unhealthy amount of weight. One female worker complained that the company did not allow her adequate time to change her feminine hygiene product because of back-to-back meetings. The company has a stated policy of working from 10 AM to 7 PM five days per week (63 hours per week), but employees noted that it was encouraged for employees to work after hours.
In August 2022, software engineer and security researcher Felix Krause found that in-app browsers from TikTok and other platforms contained codes for keylogger functionality but did not have the means to further investigate whether any data was tracked or recorded. The data included IP addresses, which can be used to approximate a user’s location. A new subsidiary, TikTok U.S. Data Security Inc. (USDS), was created to manage user data, software code, back-end systems, and content moderation. In response to security concerns of the United States government, TikTok has been working to silo privileged user data within the United States under oversight from the U.S. government or a third party such as Oracle. In June 2022, BuzzFeed News reported that leaked audio recordings of internal TikTok meetings reveal employees in China had access to overseas data, including a „master admin” who could see „everything”.
About this app
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. In 2025, a Canadian investigation found that TikTok had collected sensitive personal data from children in violation of federal privacy laws. The company claimed that no illegal activity of any kind is supported on the platform.
While TikTok remains accessible to users in most countries, a minority of countries (including India and Afghanistan) have implemented full or partial bans. It hosts user-submitted videos, which range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. ADD MUSICAdd your favorite sound to your videos with millions of music clips and sounds. CUSTOMISEOur integrated editing tools allow you to easily edit your videos.Trim, cut, merge and duplicate video clips without leaving the app.
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 June 2023, TikTok confirmed that some financial information, such as tax forms and Social Security numbers, of American content creators are stored in China. Keeping user data within the United States became the motivation behind TikTok’s Project Texas. A March 2021 study by the Citizen Lab found that TikTok did not collect data beyond the industry norms, what its policy stated, or without additional user permission. In a November 2022 update to its European privacy policy, TikTok stated that its global corporate group employees from China and other countries could gain remote access to the user information of accounts from Europe based on „demonstrated need”.
Although they were removed by TikTok after the report, mixing audio remains an effective way to evade content moderation on many platforms. In September 2024, Sky News reported that clips of Adolf Hitler’s speeches with added music were attracting high levels of engagement on TikTok. In Malaysia, TikTok is used by some users to engage in hate speech against race and religion especially mentioning the 13 May incident after the 2022 election.
TikTok has come under scrutiny due to data privacy violations, mental health concerns, misinformation, offensive content, addictive algorithm, and its role during the Gaza war. The popularity of TikTok has allowed viral trends in food, fashion, and music to take off and increase the platform’s cultural impact worldwide. The developer, TikTok Ltd., indicated that the vegas casino app app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below.
However, some employees have abused it to promote their own accounts or those of their spouses, while others have felt that their guidelines leave too much room for discretion. The practice began as a way to grow and diversify content and influencers that were not automatically picked up by the recommendation algorithm. It works with Common Sense Networks to check for safety and age appropriateness and with the Poynter Institute for reliability of information.
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. They also reported that facilities that offered these surgeries were also posting about them on TikTok. In 2020, Charli D’Amelio, the most-followed person on TikTok at the time, also made a #NoseJobCheck video to show the results of her surgery to repair a broken nose. In 2021, it was reported that a trend known as the #NoseJobCheck trend was going viral on TikTok. The article published stats about the most popular plastic surgeons on TikTok up to February 2021 and at the time, five different plastic surgeons had surpassed 1 million followers on the platform.
The average user, daily, was spending 1 hour and 25 minutes on the app and opening TikTok 17 times. As of the first quarter of 2022, there were over 100 million monthly active users in the United States and 23 million in the UK. TikTok’s unique platform organization, of spontaneous peer-peer information sharing, has enabled its utilization for community-engaged, digital knowledge mobilization and exchange between social justice communities. In September 2024, TikTok removed the accounts of Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik. TikTok’s own investigation found more than 12,000 fake accounts, including ones using additional languages such as English and Italian.
The company’s survey reported that nearly 50% of social media users find it stressful to watch a video longer than a minute and a third of users watch videos at double speed. Musical.ly was a social media video platform that allowed users to create short lip-sync and comedy videos, initially released in August 2014. Numerous social media users, including Americans, expressed their opposition to U.S. foreign policy by sharing the resurfaced copies of the letter and its contents.