a look at what jeff bezos is saying about biden and why. first, two interviews about one of the most influential companies in the world and its name is tiktok. yes, the short form video app is the most downloaded app in the world beating instagram to that title. tiktok downloaded more than 3.5 billion. and the people who download the app love the app. they spent an average of 46 minutes a day on it. other social media giants look at tiktok with envy. tiktok is the fastest growing app in history. it is quite simply storming past the competition causing rivals to create rip-off products. on the surface the app appears to bring a lot of joy to people, influencing dance styles and pushing cooking trends and the like, something more sinister may be built into its model. that s certainly what critics believe. the control tiktok has, the power, comes from its data collection and its algorithms. so a tweak might lead to you stay inside and watch one more funny video clip, one more fu
transparent as we can be. there are broader questions. concerns that china could use tiktok to, quote, influence americans commercial, cultural or political behavior. is there anything can you do to assuage those concerns? i just don t see that. again, national security experts have said that s a bit of a red herring. for those people who do spend time on the app these are all creative video that is are made domestically here in the united states well, i don t know about that. every time i log on and see a video from china i wonder if the algorithm is quietly promoting chinese content. i don t know what you re seeing on tiktok but the videos i m seeing and everybody else is seeing are videos that are from the united states. and that s really why tiktok is so popular. if it was an app that is just videos from abroad or videos from china, i don t think it would have the same popularity. it s a global phenomenon, you see videos from all around the world. it s not just u.s. co
the rise of tiktok. that s why i m leading with it today. there s this nagging question you re going to keep getting asked. let me ask one more way. are the engineers, the people developing this tool, creating this tool, are they beholden to china, and is that a threat to the u.s.? no. absolutely not. tiktok is not a security threat. and we re doing everything that we can going above and beyond working with trusted companies like oracle talking to actual agencies in the government that are responsible for national security to make sure this is cleared up and make sure we have an app that frankly is one of the most secure out there in the entire world despite the fact it is just for entertainment. we re willing to be transparent and work with all the stakeholders to make sure we earn the trust. michael beckerman, thank you for coming on and answering questions today. thank you. happy fourth. you too. lots more ahead including what liz cheney thinks you should be reading. it s
a look at what jeff bezos is saying about biden and why. first, two interviews about one of the most influential companies in the world and its name is tiktok. yes, the short form video app is the most downloaded app in the world beating instagram to that title. tiktok downloaded more than 3.5 billion. and the people who download the app love the app. they spent an average of 46 minutes a day on it. other social media giants look at tiktok with envy. tiktok is the fastest growing app in history. it is quite simply storming past the competition causing rivals to create rip-off products. on the surface the app appears to bring a lot of joy to people, influencing dance styles and pushing cooking trends and the like, something more sinister may be built into its model. that s certainly what critics believe. the control tiktok has, the power, comes from its data
speaking for myself as one member, expertise in terms of understanding how the ccp can effectively take data and infiltrate networks. i m not alone in this. there were congressional hearings looking at this. i m one piece of a broader effort looking at the serious risks that come from tiktok. it is a sophisticated, or functions as, a sophisticated tool harvesting vast amounts of data on u.s. users. tiktok should answer point blank has any ccp member obtained nonpublic u.s. user data or viewed it. not to answer with a dodge and say they ve never been asked for it or received a request. can they say no, no ccp member has ever seen nonpublic u.s. data. i m having a little bit of a hard time squaring what you re saying which is this vast surveillance mechanism that could be used by china as a trojan horse with the fact most people just use this app for fun