Inside TikTok's Attempts To 'Downplay the China Association'

Leaked documents from within TikTok reveal how the company games out responses to tricky questions -- and highlight what the company thinks its biggest public perception problems are. Chief among them: China. From a report: The PR documents, which Gizmodo obtained from within the company, are titled "TikTok Master Messaging" and "TikTok Key Messages." Both are explanations of press talking points in English and include a version translated into a European language. The larger of the two, the 53-page TikTok Master Messaging document, outlines key messages the company wants to present to the public. The dossier's version history shows it was last updated in August 2021 but had been consistently altered since it was created in March 2020.

Right near the top of the list? "Downplay the parent company ByteDance, downplay the China association, downplay AI." All three bullet points are the second, third and fourth lines of the document, second only to "Emphasise TikTok as a brand/platform." Further down, the company advises its employees to stress that, though young people love TikTok, "the app is only for users aged 13 and over." [...]The soundbites include:

"There's a lot of misinformation about TikTok right now. The reality is that the TikTok app isn't even available in China." TikTok used this talking point when responding to the BBC.
"We have not and will not share user data with the Chinese government, and would not do so if asked." TikTok used this one in response to BuzzFeed News.
"We have a number of measures in place to significantly reduce access to user data, and we continue to build those out." TikTok published this talking point on its own blog.

Company structure also very different

[Huitzil]

Say what you will about U.S. based social media companies - namely Facebook and Twitter - but their access to data for research purposes is a quadrillion times more transparent than TikTok. This results in a sort of availability bias, where press and researchers throw rocks at the 'devil we know' because of relative openness, and are restricted to know much about TikTok because bullet proof ToS and lack of mechanisms to listen to social activity.

Re:

[DarkRookie2]

0.000000000000001 vs 0.00000000000000000000000000001 isn't much of a difference.

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

I don't care about transparency, I care about where the data ends up. Given the choice between some nebulous Chinese bogeyman who doesn't know or care I exist having my data and the USG, who may decide next week or next month or next year that some trivial thing I've done is now retroactively illegal and I need to be arrested next time I set foot in the country, I'll go with Chinese bogeymen any day.

Obviously I'd prefer if it was neither, but I'm much, much, much more worried about the data in the hands o

wonderful

[GoTeam]

Both are explanations of press talking points in English and include a version translated into a European language

lol, I love it. England must have been booted from Europe at the same time they left the EU.

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[Train0987]

Why not just say what language it's in? Weird.

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[KiloByte]

No, a lot lot earlier. They got yeeted from Europe in 1558, since then they sit on some islands off the coast. They did manage to conquer India, Australia, not to mention some shittier places, since then, but none of Europe AFAIR.

Re:

[Aighearach]

AFAIR

That's why you're so full of shit, you're trying to spew it from memory and you didn't even bother to look it up.

Obviously the issue is well outside your wheelhouse, so I little double-check might be a good idea.

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[nbvb]

“got yeeted?”

Talk about unidentifiable languages .

"Not available in China"

[suss]

Yeah, obviously they have other systems already in place to spy on their subjects, what would they need Tik Tok for?

Re:

[suss]

Lenovo?

Sharing With China

[StormReaver]

"We have not and will not share user data with the Chinese government, and would not do so if asked."

That is technically true, but only because their Chinese Government overlords don't ask. They demand and threaten.

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[slazzy]

True, they can't share and they won't be asked - Chinese government requires 100% access at all times. Heck, even the US government does the same under the patriot act.

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[Aighearach]

"We have not and will not share user data with the Chinese government, and would not do so if asked."

That is technically true

It is against Chinese law for them to detail what data they share with the Chinese government. If they open their mouths about the issue, it is illegal for them to tell the truth. Any lie that doesn't make China look bad is legal. But the truth, whatever the truth actually is, good or bad, is illegal for them to disclose.

Association? Understatement of the century!

[Gravis Zero]

TikTok isn't just associated with China/CCP, they are fully controlled by them. There is nothing they can do sever their connection (the CCP made it impossible for companies to do so) so there is no reason to trust them.

Except they totally admitted

[hdyoung]

That user data can be had by people in China. They can claim whatever they want.

This isnt as bad as you think. The US most DEFINITELY has access to google data whenever they really want it. Conversely, the CCP has access to tiktok data when they really want it. Everyone will deny it. Everyone knows it’s true. Just keep tiktok out of the sensitive government and industrial facilities, and it’s all good. I dont care if tiktok knows a bunch of random junk about me.

Re:Except they totally admitted

[pr0t0]

I dont care if tiktok knows a bunch of random junk about me.

Would you care if you found out that they were using that random junk to very slowly and very, very subtley steer you into a direction that causes you to think a certian way and/or vote a certain way? Because that's what the end-game is. You may think that can't possibly happen, but the last decade of social media use clearly indicates that we are all, essentially, programmable.

Re:

[hdyoung]

You have a point, but a free and open society has a lot of resistance to that stuff. Despite Russia and China working VERY hard to manipulate us, and raise their soft power, they’ve failed quite badly at both. Part of our resistance is due to western free speech and press. Another reason is that the China and Russia models have VERY little to offer liberal western democracies. It’s painfully obvious with even the slightest objective inspection of how these countries are doing.

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[nbvb]

Do you really think they’ve failed in their mission? Given how divided and hate-filled things are now on both sides of the aisle, I’d call it a smashing success.

Sowing infighting has never been easier.

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[pr0t0]

I think you (and dromgodis below) may be thinking to literally. It's not about changing sentiment toward a particular nation. I think you're right, most nations would be too resilient to that. It's about choosing a presidential candidate that's soft on action toward that nation. Or simply sowing discord to destabilize the target nation. If the threat-actor could be positively identified in real-time, or rather if that information was made known, the operation would fail. It's precisely because we aren't mad

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[dromgodis]

but the last decade of social media use clearly indicates that we are all, essentially, programmable.

Programmable we may be, but would you say that the sentiment in the west for China or Russia has become more positive in that time?

Tik-Tok not available in China

[p51d007]

What the hell does that matter. Just because the Chinese "people" don't have access to it, does not mean the CCP doesn't have access to it.

Basically, only trust it if you're a moron.

[Chas]

We've already established that TikTok is junkware for idiots.

If you have a problem with sending your data straight to the CCP?
DON'T FUCKING USE TIKTOK!

TikTok not available in China because it's called

[waspleg]

Douyin. [wikipedia.org] A Trojan Horse by any other name ...