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What TikTok Has on You

The social media app’s data collection practices are not unlike its competitors’, but its links to China add a sinister layer to the debate.

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A young man holding a phone casts a shadow as he walks by an ad for social media company TikTok in Berlin.
A young man holding a phone casts a shadow as he walks by an ad for social media company TikTok in Berlin.
A young man holding a phone casts a shadow as he walks by an ad for social media company TikTok in Berlin on Sept. 21, 2020. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

TikTok wants to convince the West that it’s just another social media platform, even as the immensely popular short-form video app has been banned from U.S. federal government devices and by several state governments, too. Several lawmakers and officials want to go even further and ban TikTok completely. 

Rishi Iyengar is a reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @Iyengarish

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