CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA: TikTok is a platform which has content ranging from different challenges to all those funny lip sync videos that garner views from millions of people from around the globe. Amid calls to 'ban TikTok' in the US over privacy concerns, the Chinese app is facing yet another allegation. It was reported that the popular video-sharing service application kept a check on users who frequented clips that included or were tagged under headings including LGBTQ.
This included the video clips that had content related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Let's have a closer look at this controversy.
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A former employee told The Wall Street Journal that although TikTok does not question viewers about their sexual orientation, what it does instead is catalog content they watch that are tagged as "LGBTQ", which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals. They said that the collection of information, could be accessed by some employees through a dashboard which further included a set of affiliated users who watched those videos, and their ID numbers.
It is pertinent to note that TikTok has gained popularity among LGBTQ community, and has become a platform to share views, and advocate their rights. A user wrote on Twitter, "Came across this on tiktok, made me cry a little #transgender #translivesmatter #LGBTQ"
What does TikTok has to say?
IN 2022, the prominent LGBTQ advocacy group 'GLAAD', which stands for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, demanded that platforms like TikTok should take steps to safeguard user's data and privacy. However, on all of this issue, a TikTok representative told The Wall Street Journal that the data set was accessible on the dashboard to authorised employees only and that the dashboard was deleted in the US almost a year ago. The representative added, “Safeguarding the privacy and security of people who use TikTok is one of our top priorities."
