Beyond the countless hours they engulf it, is TikTok dangerous for children? In military intelligence, the answer to this question is simple: yes.
There is obviously the important collection of personal data. We also fear the effect that TikTok could have on the mental health of the youngest Internet users. Some even think it’s calculated by Beijing.
The most eloquent proof of this tactic according to experts is in the duality that exists between TikTok and Douyin, the two Siamese social networks owned by the same Chinese company, ByteDance. The former is accessible anywhere in the world except for China. The second is not available anywhere other than China.
Studies published for more than a year tend to show that the way TikTok works negatively affects the ability to concentrate of its young users. The effect on the brain of the all-you-can-eat buffet of very short videos that you scroll through with a swipe of your finger on the screen produces a behavior equivalent to the proverbial dog who suddenly sees a squirrel: the user becomes very easily distracted. In young people, this could permanently affect their ability to learn.
Conversely, Douyin promotes more content that encourages better general culture and improved knowledge. In an interview with American media, the former director of the US Army’s IT division Nicolas Chaillan sums it up simply: Douyin teaches, TikTok stupefies.
“Their algorithm is completely different. In China, it promotes scientific, historical and educational content, while it showcases silly dance videos that make our own citizens dumber,” the ex-US military man told The Daily Mail last week. New York Post.
“Made in China 2025”
With closed microphones, Canadian national security experts do not rule out this idea which is circulating in the United States and which resembles more than anything else a conspiracy theory. China, it is said, has included in its “Made in China 2025” plan this tactic of undermining the Western education system at its base by weakening its current and future students.
The “Made in China 2025” plan is officially akin to a long-term economic development strategy of any other country. It includes a host of measures implemented since 2015 by Beijing to make China the main economic and political power in the world from 2025. There are concrete initiatives, such as more massive investment in scientific and technical R&D made in China and in strengthening skills related to science and mathematics.
In return for this strengthening of Chinese skills, its main critics believe that this plan would also include measures attacking the development of skills in rival countries. TikTok would be one of these measures.
Spyware?
Naturally, TikTok spokespersons deny this outright. Their social network was designed solely as a fun application focused on entertainment, they recall.
However, the network is not white as snow.
ByteDance, the Beijing-headquartered company that owns TikTok, admitted last December that it spied on at least three journalists from the American outlet. Forbes from the Internet address of their mobile. Its Chinese employees would also have unregulated access to personal information about users of the social network.
In Washington, Brussels and Ottawa, the collection of data made by the TikTok application is considered excessive. Even if the application is not active, it collects data on the location and online activities of its users.
Once installed on a wireless, the application will ask to access its address book. It occasionally retrieves the contents of the clipboard and can list other apps on the device. It can also track the phone’s owner on the web to find out which sites they visit regularly.
That said, TikTok is no different from Facebook and Instagram. Except that the concern is elsewhere: TikTok belongs to a company based in China, where the government gives itself the right to collect without notice all the information on its users collected by the application.
Announced Monday in Ottawa and then a few hours later in Quebec, the ban on federal and provincial civil servants installing TikTok on the wireless they use for work was presented as a preventive measure. It is especially feared that these data will end up falling into the hands of the Chinese government.
Again, TikTok spokespersons are reassuring. They assure that no information from its use in North America has been shared and will not be shared with the Chinese government under any conditions.
But the personal data collected by the network are numerous. And the most effective way to avoid being the victim of a possible leak of this data is the same as that suggested to avoid the harmful effects of TikTok on the mental health of the youngest Internet users: uninstall the application.