TikTok Privacy And Racism

Hello from The Goods’ twice-weekly newsletter! On Tuesdays, internet culture reporter Rebecca Jennings uses this space to update you all on what’s been going on in the world of TikTok. Is there something you want to see more of? Less of? Different of? Email me at [email protected], and subscribe to The Goods’ newsletter here. Emmuhlu was everything people loved about TikTok: She was funny, weird, relatable, and open about her struggles with mental health and body image. She dyed her hair fun colors, delivered goofy screeds laden with feminist and progressive messages, and rapped flawless lyrics to Nicki Minaj; her love of the artist earned her a top spot among the Barbz, Nicki Minaj’s fan army.

Then someone posted a video of her yelling the n-word out of a car window. Emmuhlu, whose real name is not public, is just one of a slew of TikTokers who’ve recently been canceled by former fans after videos of them saying racist, homophobic, or otherwise offensive words. On influencer gossip channels, scandals like these are surfacing on a near-daily basis, with huge stars like Mattia Polibio and Chase Hudson both having been found to have said or written the n-word, while another, Nessa Barrett, made a TikTok dancing to a verse from the Quran (she’s said she didn’t know what the sound was). Fans have flooded Twitter with hashtags like #mattiaisoverparty, and expressed their disappointment that “everyone was rooting for you girl.”

Twenty lawsuits have been combined into a unified federal legal action against short-form video app TikTok over allegedly harvesting data from users and secretly sending the information to China. Dozens of minors, through their parents, are alleging that the video-sharing app collects information about their facial characteristics, locations and close contacts, and quietly sends that data to servers in China. Twenty separate but similar federal lawsuits were filed over the past year on behalf of TikTok users in California, where the company has offices, and Illinois, which requires that technology companies receive written consent before collecting data on a person's identity. The suits now have been merged into one.

In addition to racial biases which may be perpetuated by the platform’s algorithm, there are several TikTok users that criticize the platform for inequitable treatment of creators of color. A quick peruse on Twitter of the search terms ‘TikTok’ and ‘racism’ will pull up a multitude of tweets from users sharing opinions and videos about the discrepancies in treatment among White and non-White users. Tiahra Nelson, who goes by tiahranelson on TikTok, shared her experiences as a Black creator on the platform. Nelson indicates, “the main issue is that there is inconsistency in regard to the community guidelines…I ran into complications when two of my videos were removed because they ‘violated the community guidelines.’ One of the videos addressed the way I personally felt about non-African Americans using the n-word. The sound I used was a man saying ‘what’s wrong with you’ continuously.

The other video that was taken down was a video of me reading Twitter memes. These were comedic memes that the Black community could relate to because a great amount of [Black people] have experienced the circumstances listed. It’s always fun to make these videos because I’m able to relate to them, and others are able to relate to them as well. When I came across [a] girl’s video that degraded the African American community, I couldn’t comprehend why it continued to appear on the For You page because based on TikTok’s community guidelines, the video should’ve been taken down.”

TikTok has agreed to pay $92 million to settle dozens of lawsuits alleging that the popular video-sharing app harvested personal data from users, including information using facial recognition technology, without consent and shared the data with third-parties, some of which were based in China. The proposed settlement, which lawyers in the case have called among the largest privacy-related payouts in history, applies to 89 million TikTok users in the U.S. whose personal data was allegedly tracked and sold to advertisers in violation of state and federal law.

According to lawyers representing TikTok users, the app "clandestinely vacuumed up" vast quantities of private and personally identifiable data that could be used to identify and surveil users without permission. Even information from draft videos that were never shared publicly on the app were mined by TikTok for data, the lawyers for the users alleged.

The settlement is the result of 21 federal lawsuits filed mostly on behalf of minors — some as young as 6 years old — that claimed the company engaged in the "theft of private and personally identifiable TikTok user data." A TikTok spokesperson said while the company disagrees with the assertions in the lawsuit, the company decided settling the case was in its best interest. "Rather than go through lengthy litigation, we'd like to focus our efforts on building a safe and joyful experience for the TikTok community," the spokesperson said.

The legal battle has raged for more than a year. The suits were merged into one multi-district action in the Northern District of Illinois that cited violations of privacy laws in Illinois and California. The laws require technology companies to receive written consent before collecting data about a person's identity. The suit also claimed TikTok broke federal laws, including privacy and computer fraud and abuse statutes.

As millions in the U.S. turned to the app for videos of dance challenges, cooking tips and silly skits, TikTok was allegedly sending their information to servers in China, or in other countries where China-based employees could access the data. Tiktok also shared information about users, without their consent, with Facebook, Google and other companies, the suit claims. "The TikTok app's lighthearted fun comes at a heavy cost," plaintiffs' lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.

Investigators hired by the plaintiffs' lawyers found that TikTok went to great lengths to hide the data collection and sharing practices. "Plaintiffs' investigation has revealed that [TikTok did so] by obfuscating the source code that would reveal their misconduct," according to the suit. The tentative settlement awaits final approval by U.S. District Judge John Lee of the Northern District of Illinois. Under the proposed terms of the settlement, TikTok will no longer record a user's biometric information, including facial characteristics, nor track a user's location using GPS data. TikTok also committed to stop sending U.S. users data overseas and the app said it would no longer collect data on draft videos before the content is published.

Former President Donald Trump clamped down on TikTok over its ties to China. The app is owned by Beijing-based tech company ByteDance. TikTok has long maintained that authorities in China cannot access U.S. user data, which is controlled by an American-led team. The Biden administration has pulled back from its predecessor's crackdown on TikTok, instead launching a broader review of Americans' use of Chinese technology. That said, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency group led by the Treasury Department that probes companies with overseas connections, is in the midst of a national security review of TikTok that may force changes to the company's corporate structure.

The proposed TikTok settlement announced on Wednesday follows a similar deal struck last year in which Facebook paid $650 million to resolve legal claims over collecting and storing biometric data of millions of users. Federal regulators have scrutinized TikTok's data collection practices of minors. In February 2019, TikTok paid a $5.7 million fine to the Federal Trade Commission over allegations the app illegally collected personal information from children.