Since 2021, TikTok has created “election centres” on its platform leading up to European Parliament elections. This increased potential Web traffic linked to the riddle posters’ accounts on OnlyFans. Other TikTok creators have spoken out against accepting sponsorship deals indiscriminately and criticized those who posted undisclosed FeetFinder ads.
The company has been engaged in confidential negotiations over the project with CFIUS since 2021 and submitted its proposal but received little response from the panel afterward. Physical locations would be established so that Oracle and the US government could conduct their own reviews. This applies to those signing contracts with and receiving payment transactions from ByteDance. The whistleblower claimed in a sworn court statement that his father in mainland China had been detained by the authorities in retaliation for his speaking to the media about alleged censorship by TikTok.

• In February 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton initiated an investigation into TikTok for alleged violations of children’s privacy and facilitation of human trafficking.
• 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.
• 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.
• On 22 January 2021, the Italian Data Protection Authority demanded that TikTok temporarily suspend Italian users whose age could not be established.
• In December 2022, with the United States experiencing a shortage as well, it was reported that the huge increase in demand for the medicine was caused by a weight loss trend on TikTok, where videos about the drug exceeded 360 million views.
• Since 2021, it has been reported that accounts engaging with contents related to suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders were shown more similar videos.

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.

Competition with other platforms

In June 2022, NBC News reported that some of the influencers paid by FeetFinder, a website that sells foot fetish content, did not disclose their videos were ads. In December 2022, NBC News reported in a television segment that some TikTok and YouTube influencers were being given free and discounted cosmetic surgeries in order for them to advertise the surgeries to users of the platforms. TikTok has provided a platform for users to create content not only for fun but also for money. As with other platforms popular with children, underage users may inadvertently reveal their daily routine and whereabouts, raising concerns of potential misuse by sexual predators. By July 2023, TikTok has become the primary news source for British teenagers on social media, with 28% of 12 to 15-year-olds relying on the ruhtinas platform, while traditional sources like BBC One/Two are more trusted at 82%, according to a report by UK regulator Ofcom. TikTok’s geographical use in 2019 has shown that 43% of new users were from India before the social platform was banned in the country.
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.

Graphic content

TikTok’s algorithm, recognized by The New York Times in 2020 as one of the most advanced for shaping user experiences and social interactions, stands out from traditional social media. Jasmine Enberg, a principal social media analyst at eMarketer, observes that launching Notes as a separate app, instead of as a new feature in TikTok, may be done in response to regulatory and consumer scrutiny. Douyin was developed in 200 days and within a year had 100 million users, with more than one billion videos viewed every day. Shop right from shoptab, videos or LIVEs without leaving the app, track your orders with ease, and enjoy a safe, secure shopping and transaction process.■ Obtain access to LIVE benefits to better interact with hosts! Let yourself be inspired.■ Add your favorite music or sound to your videos for freeEasily edit your videos with millions of free music clips and sounds. Take your videos to the next level with special effects, filters, music, and more.
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 US foreign policy by sharing the resurfaced copies of the letter and its contents.

Restrictions and bans

It also announced that US user traffic would now be routed through Oracle Cloud and that backup copies would be deleted from other servers. Following the reports, TikTok confirmed that employees in China could have access to US data. As a consequence, the Senate Intelligence Committee including US lawmakers Mark Warner and Marco Rubio called for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate ByteDance and whether TikTok had misled them.

Privacy Commissioner of Canada

In June 2021, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order revoking the Trump administration ban on TikTok, and instead ordered the Secretary of Commerce to investigate the app to determine if it poses a threat to US national security. In January 2020, the United States Army and Navy banned TikTok on government devices after the Defense Department labeled it a security risk. An analysis estimated that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, could gain between $2.46 billion and $3.38 billion in advertising revenue if TikTok were banned.

• The partnership entails the launch of an official NFL TikTok account, which is to bring about new marketing opportunities such as sponsored videos and hashtag challenges.
• TikTok had earlier drawn criticism for hosting content by organized crime groups promoting the gang lifestyle and fights.
• 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.
• Charli D’Amelio remained the most-followed individual on the platform until she was surpassed by Khaby Lame on 23 June 2022.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that Silicon Valley executives met with US lawmakers to build an “anti-China alliance” before TikTok CEO’s congressional hearing in March 2023.
• It hosts user-submitted videos, which range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes.

The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. The developer, TikTok Ltd., indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features to help make common tasks in the app faster and easier to complete. Enjoy a better video browsing experience on our enhanced feed. ■ Be entertained and inspired by a global community of creatorsMillions of creators are on TikTok showcasing their incredible skills and everyday life. ■ Pause recording multiple times in one videoPause and resume your video with just a tap. TikTok had earlier drawn criticism for hosting content by organized crime groups promoting the gang lifestyle and fights.

Platform

TikTok has been downloaded more than 130 million times in the United States and has reached 2 billion downloads worldwide, according to data from mobile research firm Sensor Tower (those numbers exclude Android users in China). TikTok merged with Musical.ly on 2 August 2018 with existing accounts and data consolidated into one app, keeping the title TikTok. While TikTok remains accessible to users in most countries, a minority of countries (including India and Afghanistan) have implemented full or partial bans.

The company posted job listings for staff for a series of order fulfillment centers in the US and is reportedly planning to start the new live shopping business before the end of the year. The partnership entails the launch of an official NFL TikTok account, which is to bring about new marketing opportunities such as sponsored videos and hashtag challenges. The founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, stated that “China is home to only one-fifth of Internet users globally. If we don’t expand on a global scale, we are bound to lose to peers eyeing the four-fifths. So, going global is a must.”
This helps users find new content and creators reach new audiences, in contrast to other social networks that base recommendations on the interactions and relationships between users. The “For You” page on TikTok is a feed of videos that are recommended to users based on their activity on the app. There is insufficient public evidence to show that American user data has been accessed by or shared with the PRC government, with some claims reportedly exaggerated. Many moderators say the company’s content policies are ineffective, and digital pimps exploit underage users on the large.
These trends amassed popularity in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many people spent more time cooking at home while engaging with social media for entertainment. A viral TikTok trend known as “devious licks” involves students vandalizing or stealing school property and posting videos of the action on the platform. “Any Song” by R&B and rap artist Zico became number one on the Korean music charts due to the popularity of the #anysongchallenge, where users dance to the choreography of the song. Other creators rose to fame after the platform merged with musical.ly on 2 August 2018. This marked the company’s first instance of withdrawing its music from a major platform, in contrast to Warner Music, which had recently renewed its own licensing deal with TikTok.
The Ministry of Education (Taiwan) has warned against the harmful impact of TikTok and related app RedNote on body image and ensuing self harm related to weight loss especially in teenagers. As of March 2025update, strong scientific understanding of TikTok’s effects on user’s mental health “remains elusive”. In 2021, the platform revealed that it will be introducing a feature that will prevent teenagers from receiving notifications past their bedtime. Additionally, the app features a dashboard with statistics on how often the app is opened, how much time is spent browsing it and when the browsing occurs.