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TikTok is booming, and they are partnering up with major fashion brands and creating challenges for their users.

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LOS ANGELES--()--GUESS?, Inc. ("GUESS") (NYSE: GES) and TikTok ("TikTok") have partnered to launch TikTok's first branded content in the USA and first fashion branded content globally.

TikTok, Musical.ly, a short-form video content app which serves as an incubation hub for digital culture, is dominating the social community platform space. In the first quarter of 2018, TikTok was the world's most downloaded iOS app, according to US research firm Sensor Tower.

In an increasingly visual social media landscape, GUESS and TikTok are bringing fashion content to the Millennials and Gen Z generations through their preferred medium - short-form video. GUESS will be launching the first ever fashion takeover on TikTok on Sept 1, 2018 that will directly lead to the first TikTok promoted hashtag challenge in the US. As each TikTok user opens the app during the GUESS brand flight, they will be directed to the #InMyDenim challenge. The phenomenon of hashtag challenges spreading across the globe are inspiring millions of users to participate organically and enthusiastically in viral call-to-actions whether for a cause or for fun.

GUESS will kick off the #InMyDenim challenge with beloved and popular content creators including @ourfire (2.3M fans), @madison_willow (+983K fans), @jammincammy (+184k fans), and @operamericano (+380k fans) participating in the denim transformation challenge, a take on a native meme from TikTok.

"Discovery and innovation are part of GUESS' DNA. We are excited to be the first major global brand to partner with TikTok in a truly organic and innovative way," said Edward Park, SVP of Retail and Digital at GUESS. "These digital natives' tastes and desires govern the future of social media and culture. A cluttered brand space demands unique, engaging content and integrated participation. Our partnership with TikTok is an exciting evolution within our digital marketing strategy."

"Trends often originate on TikTok and GUESS is known for being ahead of the trends," said Matty Lin, Director of Brand Partnerships at TikTok US. "One of the reasons we chose to partner with GUESS for our first ever branded content piece in the US is because they are a well-known international fashion brand that's very recognizable to our users, who are from all over the world. GUESS is very tied into the TikTok audience and we are excited to see how the community jumps on the trend."

The #InMyDenim hashtag challenge will run from Sept 1, 2018 through Sept 6, 2018 marking the first official launch of TikTok's US brand partnerships.

Established in 1981, GUESS began as a jeans company and has since successfully grown into a global lifestyle brand. Guess?, Inc. designs, markets, distributes and licenses a lifestyle collection of contemporary apparel, denim, handbags, watches, footwear and other related consumer products. Guess? products are distributed through branded Guess? stores as well as better department and specialty stores around the world. As of August 4, 2018, the Company directly operated 1,061 retail stores in the Americas, Europe and Asia. The Company's licensees and distributors operated 601 additional retail stores worldwide. As of August 4, 2018, the Company and its licensees and distributors operated in approximately 100 countries worldwide. For more information about the Company, please visit www.guess.com.

TikTok is a destination for short-form mobile videos. Our mission is to capture and present the world's creativity, knowledge, and moments that matter, directly from the mobile phone. TikTok enables everyone to be a creator and encourages users to share their passion and creative expression through their videos. TikTok is based in Los Angeles, with global offices in London, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Jakarta, Mumbai, and Moscow. In early 2018, TikTok was one of the most downloaded apps in the world. TikTok is available worldwide for iOS and Android. Visit tiktok.com.

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GUESS?, Inc. and TikTok Launch First-of-Its-Kind Fashion Partnership

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LOS ANGELES--()--GUESS?, Inc. ("GUESS") (NYSE: GES) and TikTok ("TikTok") have partnered to launch TikTok's first branded content in the USA and first fashion branded content globally. TikTok, Musical.ly, a short-form video content app which serves as an incubation hub for digital culture, is dominating the social community platform space.

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Talks about the success of TikTok and how the app beat adds like facebook and snapchat for downloads in certain time periods. States that TikTok is a way to attract young American users.

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tiktok is the latest short-video app sensation  - cnn

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TikTok is the latest short-video app sensation

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It's been downloaded about 80 million times in the United States, and nearly 800 million times worldwide.

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Discusses the background of TikTok. Talks about merger with Musical.ly and the other app, Douyin.

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TikTok, whose mainland Chinese counterpart is Douyin ( Chinese: 抖音; pinyin: ), is a short-form video hosting service owned by ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 3 seconds to 10 minutes.

Since their launches, TikTok and Douyin have gained global popularity. In October 2020, TikTok surpassed 2 billion mobile downloads worldwide. Morning Consult named TikTok the third-fastest growing infotech brand of 2020, after Zoom and Peacock. Cloudflare ranked TikTok the most popular website of 2021, surpassing Google.

Corporate structure

ByteDance, based in Beijing, and its subsidiary TikTok Ltd were incorporated in the Cayman Islands. ByteDance is owned by its founders and Chinese investors (20%), other global investors (60%), and employees (20%). TikTok Ltd owns four entities that are based respectively in the United States, Australia (which also runs the New Zealand business), United Kingdom (also owns subsidiaries in the European Union), and Singapore (owns operations in Southeast Asia and India).

In April 2021, a state-owned enterprise owned by the Cyberspace Administration of China and China Media Group, the China Internet Investment Fund, purchased a 1% stake in ByteDance's main Chinese entity. The Economist, Reuters, and Financial Times have described the Chinese government's stake as a golden share investment.

Douyin was launched by ByteDance in September 2016, originally under the name A.me, before rebranding to Douyin () in December 2016. Douyin was developed in 200 days and within a year had 100 million users, with more than one billion videos viewed every day.

While TikTok and Douyin share a similar user interface, the platforms operate separately. Douyin includes an in-video search feature that can search by people's faces for more videos of them, along with other features such as buying, booking hotels, and making geo-tagged reviews.

ByteDance planned on Douyin expanding overseas. 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."

The app was launched as TikTok in the international market in September 2017. On 23 January 2018, the TikTok app ranked first among free application downloads on app stores in Thailand and other countries.

In the United States, celebrities, including Jimmy Fallon and Tony Hawk, began using the app in 2018. Other celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, Will Smith, and Justin Bieber joined TikTok as well as many others.

In January 2019, TikTok allowed creators to embed merchandise sale links into their videos.

On 3 September 2019, TikTok and the U.S. National Football League (NFL) announced a multi-year partnership. The agreement occurred just two days before the NFL's 100th season kick-off at Soldier Field, where TikTok hosted activities for fans in honor of the deal. 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. In July 2020, TikTok, excluding Douyin, reported close to 800 million monthly active users worldwide after less than four years of existence.

According to data from app analytics group Sensor Tower, advertising on TikTok in the US grew by 11% in March 2023, with companies including Pepsi, DoorDash, Amazon and Apple among the top spenders. According to estimates from research group Insider Intelligence, TikTok is projected to generate $14.15 billion in revenue in 2023, up from $9.89 billion in 2022.

Musical.ly merger

On 9 November 2017, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, spent nearly $1 billion to purchase musical.ly, a startup headquartered in Shanghai with an overseas office in Santa Monica, California, U.S. Musical.ly was a social media video platform that allowed users to create short lip-sync and comedy videos, initially released in August 2014. TikTok merged with musical.ly on 2 August 2018 with existing accounts and data consolidated into one app, keeping the title TikTok. This ended musical.ly and made TikTok a worldwide app, excluding China, since China already had Douyin.

Expansion in other markets

After merging with musical.ly in August, downloads increased and TikTok became the most downloaded app in the U.S. in October 2018, which musical.ly had done once before. In February 2019, TikTok, together with Douyin, hit one billion downloads globally, excluding Android installs in China. In 2019, media outlets cited TikTok as the 7th-most-downloaded mobile app of the decade, from 2010 to 2019. It was also the most-downloaded app on Apple's App Store in 2018 and 2019, surpassing Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. In September 2020, a deal was confirmed between ByteDance and Oracle in which the latter will serve as a partner to provide cloud hosting, as TikTok faces attempts to ban it in the United States. In November 2020, TikTok signed a licensing deal with Sony Music. In December 2020, Warner Music Group signed a licensing deal with TikTok. In April 2021, Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism partnered with TikTok to promote tourism. It came following the January 2021 winter campaign, initiated through a partnership between the UAE Government Media Office partnered and TikTok to promote the country's tourism.

Since 2014, the first non-gaming apps with more than 3 billion downloads were Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger; all owned by Meta. TikTok was the first non-Facebook app to reach that figure. Sensor Tower reported that although TikTok had been banned in India, its largest market, in June 2020, downloads in the rest of the world continue to increase, reaching 3 billion downloads in 2021.

TikTok works with Tehran Chamber of Commerce.

Relationship with other tech platforms

Although the size of its user base falls short of that of Facebook, Instagram, or Youtube, TikTok reached 1 billion active monthly users faster than any of them. Competition from TikTok prompted Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, to spend $120 million as of 2022 to entice more content creators to its Reels service, although engagement level remained low. Snapchat had likewise paid out $250 million in 2021 to its creators. Many platforms and services, including Youtube Shorts, began to imitate TikTok's format and recommendation page. Those changes caused a backlash from users of Instagram, Spotify, and Twitter.

In March 2022, The Washington Post reported that Facebook's owner Meta Platforms paid Targeted Victory-a consulting firm backed by supporters of the U.S. Republican Party-to coordinate lobbying and media campaigns against TikTok and portray it as "a danger to American children and society." Its efforts included asking local reporters to serve as "back channels" of anti-TikTok messages, writing opinion articles and letters to the editor, including one in the name of a concerned parent, amplifying stories about TikTok trends, such as "devious licks" and "Slap a Teacher", that actually originated on Facebook, and promoting Facebook's own corporate initiatives. Ties to Meta were not disclosed to the other parties involved. Targeted Victory said that it is "proud of the work". A Meta spokesperson said that all platforms, including TikTok, should face scrutiny.

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.

An example of a video that met TikTok requirements and recommendations, showing Crew Dragon Endeavour docking with the International Space Station

The mobile app allows users to create short videos, which often feature music in the background and can be sped up, slowed down, or edited with a filter. They can also add their own sound on top of the background music. To create a music video with the app, users can choose background music from a wide variety of music genres, edit with a filter and record a 15-second video with speed adjustments before uploading it to share with others on TikTok or other social platforms.

The "For You" page on TikTok is a feed of videos that are recommended to users based on their activity on the app. Content is curated by TikTok's artificial intelligence depending on the content a user liked, interacted with, or searched. This is in contrast to other social networks' algorithms basing such content off of the user's relationships with other users and what they liked or interacted with.

Videos that users do not want to post yet can be stored in their "drafts". The user is allowed to see their "drafts" and post when they find it fitting. The app allows users to set their accounts as "private". When first downloading the app, the user's account is public by default. The user can change to private in their settings. Private content remains visible to TikTok but is blocked from TikTok users who the account holder has not authorized to view their content. Users can choose whether any other user, or only their "friends", may interact with them through the app via comments, messages, or "react" or "duet" videos. Users also can set specific videos to either "public", "friends only", or "private" regardless if the account is private or not.

TikTok announced a "family safety mode" in February 2020 for parents to be able to control their children's presence on the app. There is a screen time management option, restricted mode, and the option to put a limit on direct messages. The app expanded its parental controls feature called "Family Pairing" in September 2020 to provide parents and guardians with educational resources to understand what children on TikTok are exposed to. Content for the feature was created in partnership with online safety nonprofit, Internet Matters.

In October 2021, TikTok launched a test feature that allows users to directly tip certain creators. Accounts of users that are of age, have at least 100,000 followers and agree to the terms can activate a "Tip" button on their profile, which allows followers to tip any amount, starting from $1.

In December 2021, TikTok started beta-testing Live Studio, a streaming software that would let users broadcast applications open on their computers, including games. The software also launched with support for mobile and PC streaming. However, a few days later, users on Twitter discovered that the software uses code from the open-source OBS Studio. OBS made a statement saying that, under the GNU GPL version 2, TikTok has to make the code of Live Studio publicly available if it wants to use any code from OBS.

In May 2022, TikTok announced TikTok Pulse, an ad revenue-sharing program. It covers the "top 4% of all videos on TikTok" and is only available to creators with more than 100,000 followers. If an eligible creator's video reaches the top 4%, they will receive a 50% share of the revenue from ads displayed with the video.

In July 2023, TikTok launched a new streaming service called TikTok Music, currently available only in Brazil and Indonesia. This service allows users to listen to, download and share songs. It is reported that TikTok Music features songs from major record companies like Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music Group. On 19 July 2023, TikTok Music was expanded for select users in Australia, Mexico and Singapore.

Content and usage

Demographics

Teenage mode

China heavily regulates how Douyin is used by minors in the country, especially after 2018. Under government pressure, ByteDance introduced parental controls and a "teenage mode" that shows only whitelisted content, such as knowledge sharing, and bans pranks, superstition, dance clubs, and pro-LGBT content. A mandatory screen time limit was put in place for users under the age of 14 and a requirement to link accounts to a real identity to prevent minors from lying about their age or using an adult's account. The differences between Douyin and TikTok have led some US politicians and commentators to accuse the company or the Chinese government of malicious intent. In March 2023, TikTok announced default screen time limits for users under the age of 18. Those under the age of 13 would need a passcode from their parents to extend their time.

Cyberbullying

noted in 2018 that bullies and trolls were relatively rare on TikTok compared to other platforms. Nonetheless, several users have reported cyberbullying via features such as Duet or React, which is used to interact with followers. A trend making fun of autism eventually created a huge backlash, even on the platform itself, and the company ended up removing the hashtag altogether. Parents filming how their children reacted to people with disability, often in terror, led to criticisms of ableism. In December 2019, following a report by German digital rights group netzpolitik.org, TikTok admitted that it had suppressed videos by disabled users as well as LGBTQ+ users in a purported temporary effort to limit cyberbullying.

Viral trends

Many recipes and food-related trends grew popular on TikTok, leading some content creators to gain millions of subscribers and the term "FoodTok" to be widely used. The amount of engagement on TikTok has encouraged more cooking in younger viewers and drawn in businesses from the food industry to market themselves on the platform and interact with followers.

The app has spawned numerous viral trends, Internet celebrities, and music trends around the world. Duets, a feature that allows users to add their own video to an existing video with the original content's audio, have sparked many of these trends. Many stars got their start on musical.ly, which merged with TikTok on 2 August 2018. These include Loren Gray, Baby Ariel, Zach King, Lisa and Lena, Jacob Sartorius, and many others. Loren Gray remained the most-followed individual on TikTok until Charli D'Amelio surpassed her on 25 March 2020. Gray's was the first TikTok account to reach 40 million followers on the platform. She was surpassed with 41.3 million followers. D'Amelio was the first to ever reach 50, 60, and 70 million followers. Charli D'Amelio remained the most-followed individual on the platform until she was surpassed by Khaby Lame on June 23, 2022. Other creators rose to fame after the platform merged with musical.ly on 2 August 2018. TikTok also played a major part in making " Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X one of the biggest songs of 2019 and the longest-running number-one song in the history of the US Billboard Hot 100.

TikTok has allowed many music artists to gain a wider audience, often including foreign fans. For example, despite never having toured in Asia, the band Fitz and the Tantrums developed a large following in South Korea following the widespread popularity of their 2016 song " HandClap" 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. The platform has also launched many songs that failed to garner initial commercial success into sleeper hits, particularly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it has received criticism for not paying royalties to artists whose music is used on the platform.

Classic stars are able to connect with younger audiences born decades after a musician's first debut and across traditional genres. In 2020 Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" was used in a skating video and a recreation by Mick Fleetwood. The song re-entered Billboard Hot 100 after 43 years and topped Apple Music. In 2022, Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" went viral among fans of Stranger Things, topping the UK singles chart 37 years after its original release. In 2023 Kylie Minogue's " Padam Padam" entered the Radio 1 playlist after being shared by Gen Z, even though many youth radio stations had refused to play it. Other older artists with strong engagement on TikTok include Elton John and Rod Stewart.

In June 2020, TikTok users and K-pop fans "claimed to have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets" for President Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa through communication on TikTok, contributing to "rows of empty seats" at the event. Later, in October 2020, an organization called TikTok for Biden was created to support then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. After the election, the organization was renamed to Gen-Z for Change.

On 10 August 2020, Emily Jacobssen wrote and sang "Ode to Remy", a song praising the protagonist from Pixar's 2007 computer-animated film Ratatouille. The song rose to popularity when musician Daniel Mertzlufft composed a backing track to the song. In response, began creating a "crowdsourced" project called Ratatouille the Musical. Since Mertzlufft's video, many new elements including costume design, additional songs, and a playbill have been created. On 1 January 2021, a full one-hour virtual presentation of Ratatouille the Musical premiered on TodayTix. It starred Titus Burgess as Remy, Wayne Brady as Django, Adam Lambert as Emile, Kevin Chamberlin as Gusteau, Andrew Barth Feldman as Linguini, Ashley Park as Colette, Priscilla Lopez as Mabel, Mary Testa as Skinner, and André De Shields as Ego.

A viral TikTok trend known as " devious licks" involves students vandalizing or stealing school property and posting videos of the action on the platform. The trend has led to increasing school vandalism and subsequent measures taken by some schools to prevent damage. Some students have been arrested for participating in the trend. TikTok has taken measures to remove and prevent access to content displaying the trend. Another TikTok trend known as the Kia Challenge involves users stealing certain models of Kia and Hyundai cars manufactured without immobilizers, which was a standard feature at the time, between 2010 and 2021. As of February 2023, it had resulted in at least 14 crashes and eight deaths according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In May, Kia and Hyundai settled a $200-million class-action lawsuit by agreeing to provide software updates to affected vehicles and over 26,000 steering wheel locks.

In 2023 a trend took off where streamers acted as if they were video-game characters following prompts from their viewers. Livestreaming as non-player characters or NPCs was already known in the cosplay community. It allows viewers to become more invested in their experience and creators to interact with their followers in real-time. When the trend exploded, some creators were able to make a living out of their performances. They believe that even if the trend does not last, it can supplement their income as they become better at content creation in general or pivot into other niches such as ASMR.

On Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, some celebrities who had garnered large followings as of August 2019 include Dilraba Dilmurat, Angelababy, Luo Zhixiang, Ouyang Nana, and Pan Changjiang. In the 2022 FIFA World Cup, a Qatari teenage royal became an Internet celebrity after his angry expressions were recorded in Qatar's opening match loss to Ecuador; he amassed more than 15 million followers in less than a week after creating a Douyin account.

Fashion and body size

Cosmetic surgery

Content promoting cosmetic surgery is popular on TikTok and has spawned several viral trends on the platform. In December 2021, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, published an article about the popularity of some plastic surgeons on TikTok. In the article, it was noted that plastic surgeons were some of the earliest adopters of social media in the medical field and many had been recognized as influencers on the platform. 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.

In April 2022, NBC News reported that surgeons were giving influencers on the platform discounted or free cosmetic surgeries in order to advertise the procedures to their audiences. They also reported that facilities that offered these surgeries were also posting about them on TikTok. TikTok has banned the advertising of cosmetic surgeries on the platform but cosmetic surgeons are still able to reach large audiences using unpaid photo and video posts. NBC reported that videos using the hashtags '#plasticsurgery' and '#lipfiller' had amassed a combined 26 billion views on the platform.

In December 2022, it was reported that a cosmetic surgery procedure known as buccal fat removal was going viral on the platform. The procedure involves surgically removing fat from the cheeks in order to give the face a slimmer and more chiseled appearance. Videos using hashtags related to buccal fat removal had collectively amassed over 180 million views. Some TikTok users criticized the trend for promoting an unobtainable beauty standard.

Medication shortage

In November 2022, Australia's medical regulatory agency, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) reported that there was a global shortage of the diabetes medication Ozempic. According to the TGA, the rise in demand was caused by an increase in off-label prescription of the drug for weight loss purposes. 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. Wegovy, a drug that has been specifically approved for treating obesity, also became popular on the platform after Elon Musk credited it for helping him lose weight.

Influencer marketing

In 2021, The New York Times reported that viral TikTok videos by young people relating the emotional impact of books on them, tagged with the label " BookTok", significantly drove sales of literature. Publishers were increasingly using the platform as a venue for influencer marketing.

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.

In June 2022, reported that some of the influencers paid by FeetFinder, a website that sells foot fetish content, did not disclose their videos were ads. FeetFinder said that it has suggested to influencers to be upfront about who was funding them. Existing sellers on FeetFinder said that the videos often misrepresented how "easy" it is to make money from posting feet pictures. Other TikTok creators have spoken out against accepting sponsorship deals indiscriminately and criticized those who posted undisclosed FeetFinder ads.

Use by businesses

Some small businesses have used TikTok to advertise and to reach an audience wider than the geographical region they would normally serve. The viral response to many small business TikTok videos has been attributed to TikTok's algorithm, which shows content that viewers at large are drawn to, but which they are unlikely to actively search for (such as videos on unconventional types of businesses, like beekeeping and logging).

In 2020, digital media companies such as Group Nine Media and Global used TikTok increasingly, focusing on tactics such as brokering partnerships with TikTok influencers and developing branded content campaigns. Notable collaborations between larger brands and top TikTok influencers have included Chipotle's partnership with David Dobrik in May 2019 and Dunkin' Donuts' partnership with Charli D'Amelio in September 2020.

TikTok is regularly used by sex workers to promote pornographic content sold on platforms such as OnlyFans. One porn actor posted a viral song referring to himself as an "accountant", starting a trend. In 2020 TikTok updated their terms of service to ban content that promotes "premium sexual content", impacting a large number of adult content creators. In response, they began substituting words in their captions and videos and using filters to censor explicit images. Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future, believes that at some point, censorship becomes a fool's errand and we would never be "able to sanitize the Internet". Some adult content creators have found a way to game TikTok's recommendation algorithm by posting riddles, which attract a large number of viewers trying and failing to solve them. Some of them are redirected to the creators' OnlyFans accounts and end up as subscribers there.

In January 2023, reported that a "heating" tool allows TikTok to manually promote certain videos, comprising 1-2% of daily views. The practice began as a way to grow and diversify content and influencers that were not automatically picked up by the recommendation algorithm. It was also used to promote brands, artists, and NGOs, such as the FIFA World Cup and Taylor Swift. However, some employees have abused it to promote their own accounts or those of their spouses, while others have felt that their guidelines leave too much room for discretion. TikTok said only a few individuals can approve heating in the U.S. and the promoted videos take up less than 0.002% of user feeds. To address concerns of Chinese influence, the company is negotiating with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) such that future heating could only be performed by vetted security personnel in the U.S. and the process would be audited by third-parties such as Oracle.

Censorship and moderation

TikTok's and Douyin's censorship policies have been criticized as non-transparent. Internal guidelines against the promotion of violence, separatism, and "demonization of countries" could be used to prohibit content related to the Tiananmen Square crackdown, Falun Gong, Tibet, Taiwan, Chechnya, Northern Ireland, the Cambodian genocide, the 1998 Indonesian riots, Kurdish nationalism, ethnic conflicts between blacks and whites, or between different Islamic sects. A more specific list banned criticisms against world leaders, including past and present ones from Russia, the United States, Japan, North and South Korea, India, Indonesia, and Turkey. In 2019, TikTok took down a video about human rights abuses in the Xinjiang internment camps against Uyghurs but restored it after 50 minutes as well as the creator's account, saying that the action was a mistake and triggered by a brief "satirical" image of Osama bin Laden in another post.

TikTok moderators were instructed to suppress posts from "For You" recommendations if the users shown were deemed "too ugly, poor, or disabled". The consumption of alcohol, full or partial nudity, LGBT and intersex contents were restricted even in places where they are legal. TikTok has since apologized and instituted a ban against anti-LGBTQ ideology, but censorship continues on Douyin due to regulations in China. Douyin guidelines also forbid live broadcasting by unregistered foreigners, "feudal superstition", "money worship", smoking and drinking, competitive eating by the "already obese", "toxic" slime, "pornographic" ASMR such as ear-licking, and female anchors wearing revealing clothes.

ByteDance said its early guidelines were global and aimed at reducing online harassment and divisiveness when its platforms were still growing. They have been replaced by versions customized by local teams for users in different regions.

Extremism and hate

Concerns have been voiced regarding content relating to, and the promotion and spreading of hate speech and far-right extremism, such as antisemitism, racism, and xenophobia. Some videos were shown to expressly promote Holocaust denial and told viewers to take up arms and fight in the name of white supremacy and the swastika. As TikTok has gained popularity among young children, and the popularity of extremist and hateful content is growing, calls for tighter restrictions on their flexible boundaries have been made. TikTok has since released tougher parental controls to filter out inappropriate content and to ensure they can provide sufficient protection and security.

In March 2023, The Jewish Chronicle reported that TikTok still hosted videos that promoted the neo-Nazi propaganda film Europa: The Last Battle, despite having been alerted to the issue four months prior. TikTok said it removed and would continue to remove the content and associated accounts and has blocked the search term as well.

ISIL propaganda

Misinformation

TikTok has banned Holocaust denial, but other conspiracy theories have become popular on the platform, such as Pizzagate and QAnon (two conspiracy theories popular among the U.S. alt-right) whose hashtags reached almost 80 million views and 50 million views respectively by June 2020. The platform has also been used to spread misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, such as clips from . TikTok removed some of these videos and has generally added links to accurate COVID-19 information on videos with tags related to the pandemic.

In January 2020, left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters for America said that TikTok hosted misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic despite a recent policy against misinformation. In April 2020, the government of India asked TikTok to remove users posting misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were also multiple conspiracy theories that the government is involved with the spread of the pandemic. As a response to this, TikTok launched a feature to report content for misinformation. It reported that in the second half of 2020, over 340,000 videos in the U.S. about election misinformation and 50,000 videos of COVID-19 misinformation were removed.

In September 2022, NewsGuard Technologies reported that among the TikTok searches it had conducted and analyzed from the U.S., 19.4% surfaced misinformation such as questionable or harmful content about COVID-19 vaccines, homemade remedies, the 2020 US elections, the war in Ukraine, the Robb Elementary School shooting, and abortion. NewsGuard suggested that in contrast, results from Google were of higher quality. Mashable's own test from Australia found innocuous results after searching for "getting my COVID vaccine" but suggestions such as "climate change is a myth" after typing in "climate change".

Russian invasion of Ukraine

As of 2022, TikTok is the 10th most popular app in Russia. After a new set of Russian fake news laws was installed in March 2022, the company announced a series of restrictions on Russian and non-Russian posts and livestreams. Tracking Exposed, a user data rights group, learned of what was likely a technical glitch that became exploited by pro-Russia posters. It stated that although this and other loopholes were patched by TikTok before the end of March, the initial failure to correctly implement the restrictions, in addition to the effects from Kremlin's "fake news" laws, contributed to the formation of a "splInternet ... dominated by pro-war content" in Russia. TikTok said that it had removed 204 accounts for swaying public opinion about the war while obscuring their origins and that its fact checkers had removed 41,191 videos for violating its misinformation policies.

User privacy

Privacy concerns have also been brought up regarding the app. In its privacy policy, TikTok lists that it collects usage information, IP addresses, a user's mobile carrier, unique device identifiers, keystroke patterns, and location data, among other data.

In January 2020, Check Point Research discovered a vulnerability, later patched by TikTok, whereby a hacker could spoof TikTok's official SMS messages and replace them with malicious links to gain access to user accounts.

In February, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman criticized the app, calling it " spyware". TikTok said the accusations were made without evidence.

In August 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported that TikTok tracked Android user data, including MAC addresses and IMEIs, with a tactic in violation of Google's policies. The report sparked calls in the U.S. Senate for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to launch an investigation.

In a November 2022 update to its European privacy policy, TikTok stated that its global corporate group employees from China and other countries could gain remote access to the user information of accounts from Europe based on "demonstrated need".

In May 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that former employees complained about TikTok tracking users who had viewed LGBT-related content, leading to fears of collected data potentially usable for blackmail. It also reported that a former employee from 2018 was suing TikTok's parent, ByteDance, for wrongful termination from his job. The suit alleges that Hong Kong users' device information and communications were accessed by Chinese Communist Party members. ByteDance denied the claims and said the employee worked on a defunct project. The company pulled TikTok out of Hong Kong in 2020.

Underage users

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. At the time of reporting (2018), TikTok had only two privacy settings, either private or completely public, without any middle ground. Comment sections of "sexy" videos, such as young girls dancing in revealing clothes, were found to contain requests for nude pictures. TikTok itself forbids direct messaging of videos and photos, which meant follow-up interactions, if any, would have to take place in some other form.

TikTok raised the minimum age for livestreaming from 16 to 18 after a BBC News investigation found hundreds of accounts going live from Syrian refugee camps. 30 of them showed children begging for digital donation. TikTok reportedly took a 70% commission from some of them, a figure that the company disputed.

Journalist spying scandal

In June 2022, BuzzFeed News reported that leaked audio recordings of internal TikTok meetings reveal employees in China had access to overseas data, including a "master admin" who could see "everything". Some of the recordings were made during consultations with Booz Allen Hamilton, a US government contractor. A spokesperson of the contractor said some of the report's information was inaccurate but would neither confirm nor deny whether TikTok was one of its clients. Following the reports, TikTok confirmed that employees in China could have access to U.S. data. It also announced that US user traffic would now be routed through Oracle Cloud and that backup copies would be deleted from other servers.

In October 2022, Forbes reported that a team at ByteDance planned to surveil certain US citizens for undisclosed reasons. TikTok said that the tracking method suggested by the report would not be feasible because precise GPS information is not collected by the platform. In December 2022, ByteDance confirmed after internal investigation that the data of two journalists and their close contacts had been accessed by its employees from China and the United States on an "audit" team. The audit was intended to uncover sources of leaks who might have met with the journalists from Forbes and the Financial Times. The data accessed included IP addresses, which can be used to approximate a user's location. Four employees have been terminated, including the audit team's lead Chris Lepitak and his superior, executive Song Ye. ByteDance and TikTok condemned the individuals' misuse of authority. The incident is being investigated by the US Department of Justice and FBI. The US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia reportedly subpoenaed information from ByteDance regarding efforts made to access US journalists' private user data using TikTok.

European data privacy investigations

Project Clover

UK Information Commissioner's Office investigation

In February 2019, the United Kingdom's Information Commissioner's Office launched an investigation of TikTok following the fine ByteDance received from the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Speaking to a parliamentary committee, Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said that the investigation focuses on the issues of private data collection, the kind of videos collected and shared by children online, as well as the platform's open messaging system which allows any adult to message any child. She noted that the company was potentially violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which requires the company to provide different services and different protections for children.

Privacy Commissioner of Canada investigation

Texas Attorney General investigation

In February 2022, the incumbent Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, initiated an investigation into TikTok for alleged violations of children's privacy and facilitation of human trafficking. Paxton claimed that the Texas Department of Public Safety gathered several pieces of content showing the attempted recruitment of teenagers to smuggle people or goods across the Mexico-United States border. He claimed the evidence may prove the company's involvement in "human smuggling, sex trafficking and drug trafficking." The company claimed that no illegal activity of any kind is supported on the platform.

U.S. COPPA fines

On 27 February 2019, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined ByteDance U.S.$5.7 million for collecting information from minors under the age of 13 in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. ByteDance responded by adding a kids-only mode to TikTok which blocks the upload of videos, the building of user profiles, direct messaging, and commenting on others' videos, while still allowing the viewing and recording of content. In May 2020, an advocacy group filed a complaint with the FTC saying that TikTok had violated the terms of the February 2019 consent decree, which sparked subsequent Congressional calls for a renewed FTC investigation. In July 2020, it was reported that the FTC and the United States Department of Justice had initiated investigations.

Addiction and mental health concerns

There are concerns that some users may find it hard to stop using TikTok. In April 2018, an addiction-reduction feature was added to Douyin. This encouraged users to take a break every 90 minutes. Later in 2018, the feature was rolled out to the TikTok app. TikTok uses some top influencers such as Gabe Erwin, Alan Chikin Chow, James Henry, and Cosette Rinab to encourage viewers to stop using the app and take a break.

In February 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that " Mental-health professionals around the country are growing increasingly concerned about the effects on teen girls of posting sexualized TikTok videos." In March 2022, a coalition of U.S. state attorneys general launched an investigation into TikTok's effect on children's mental health. In June 2022, TikTok introduced the ability to set a maximum uninterrupted screen time allowance, after which the app blocks off the ability to navigate the feed. The block only lifts after the app is exited and left unused for a set period of time. 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.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that doctors experienced a surge in reported cases of tics, tied to an increasing number of TikTok videos from content creators with Tourette syndrome. Doctors suggested that the cause may be a social one as users who consumed content showcasing various tics would sometimes develop tics of their own, akin to mass psychogenic illness.

Workplace conditions

Several former employees of the company have claimed of poor workplace conditions, including the start of the workweek on Sunday to cooperate with Chinese timezones and excessive workload. Employees claimed they averaged 85 hours of meetings per week and would frequently stay up all night in order to complete tasks. Some employees claimed the workplace's schedule operated similarly to the 996 schedule. The company has a stated policy of working from 10 AM to 7 PM five days per week (63 hours per week), but employees noted that it was encouraged for employees to work after hours. One female worker complained that the company did not allow her adequate time to change her feminine hygiene product because of back-to-back meetings. Another employee noted that working at the company caused her to seek marriage therapy and lose an unhealthy amount of weight. In response to the allegations, the company noted that they were committed to allowing employees "support and flexibility".

Bans and attempted bans

Countries that banned TikTok on governmental devices

Countries that made temporary bans in the past

Countries where TikTok is banned

Countries that banned TikTok and made their own version

With reports that Palestinians resorted to TikTok for promoting their cause after platforms like Facebook and Twitter blocked their content, Israeli analyst Yoni Ben-Menachem told in 2022 that the Chinese app was a "tool of dangerous influence" inciting violence through videos glorifying attacks against Israelis. The Palestinian militant group Lion's Den gained much of their popularity through TikTok, according to Ynet. In February 2023, Otzma Yehudit politician Almog Cohen advocated blocking TikTok for all of East Jerusalem.

In February 2023, the Canadian government banned TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices.

In March 2023, Belgium banned TikTok from all federal government work devices over cybersecurity, privacy, and misinformation concerns.

United Kingdom

United States

According to a 2020 article in The New York Times, CIA analysts determined that while it is possible the Chinese government could obtain user information from the app, there was no evidence it had done so. Several independent cybersecurity experts have also concluded that there is no determinable evidence that user information was being or had been obtained by the Chinese government, although they note that the amount of data that the app collects is of comparable volume to other social media apps, including U.S.-based platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

On 6 August 2020, then U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order which would ban TikTok transactions in 45 days if it was not sold by ByteDance. Trump also signed a similar order against the WeChat application owned by the Chinese multinational company Tencent.

On 14 August 2020, Trump issued another order giving ByteDance 90 days to sell or spin off its U.S. TikTok business. In the order, Trump said that there is "credible evidence" that leads him to believe that ByteDance "might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States." Donald Trump was concerned about TikTok being a threat because TikTok's parent company was rumored to be taking United States user data and reporting it back to Chinese operations through the company ByteDance.

In November 2022, Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told U.S. lawmakers that "the Chinese government could use [TikTok] to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations."

In December 2022, Senator Marco Rubio and representatives Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi introduced the Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act), which would prohibit Chinese- and Russian-owned social networks from doing business in the United States. That month, Senator Josh Hawley also introduced a separate measure, the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, to ban federal employees from using TikTok on all government devices. On December 15, Hawley's measure was unanimously passed by the U.S. Senate. On December 27, the Chief Administrative Officer of the United States House of Representatives banned TikTok from all devices managed by the House of Representatives.

In March 2023, reported that TikTok hired SKDK to lobby amid a possible federal ban. This preceded TikTok's CEO appearance before Congress to address the concerns surrounding the app. He stated that TikTok's data collection practices did not differ from those of other US social media platforms. A researcher at the Citizen Lab believes that governments around the world should better protect user information in general from being exploited by Big Tech, not focus exclusively on one app.

Montana became the first state to pass legislation banning TikTok on all personal devices from operating within state lines and barring app stores from offering TikTok for downloads. State governor Greg Gianforte signed the bill in May 2023 with the law going into effect in January 2024. TikTok is paying the attorney fees for a lawsuit from Montana content creators who had expressed concerns about the legislation. The company is filing a separate case on its own behalf to overturn the ban.

Security officials have few details to offer about the move against TikTok.

The types of data collected by TikTok are also collected by other social media platforms and available for purchase through brokers, often without oversight, by both private and state entities. A researcher at Georgia Tech's Internet Governance Project raised the question of whether protectionism of U.S. corporations, rather than privacy concerns, is the primary motivation of the US government. An analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies writes that it would make more sense to focus on the protection of data directly rather than on any particular platform.

Project Texas

In March 2023, a former employee of the company said Project Texas did not go far enough and that a complete "re-engineering" would be needed. TikTok responded by saying that Project Texas already is a re-engineering of the app and that the former employee left in 2022 before the project specifications were finalized.

Other legal issues

Some countries have shown concerns regarding the content on TikTok, as their cultures view it as obscene, immoral, vulgar, and encouraging pornography. There have been temporary blocks and warnings issued by countries including Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan over the content concerns. In 2018, Douyin was reprimanded by Chinese media watchdogs for showing "unacceptable" content.

Tencent lawsuits

Tencent's WeChat platform has been accused of blocking Douyin's videos. In April 2018, Douyin sued Tencent and accused it of spreading false and damaging information on its WeChat platform, demanding CN¥1 million in compensation and an apology. In June 2018, Tencent filed a lawsuit against Toutiao and Douyin in a Beijing court, alleging they had repeatedly defamed Tencent with negative news and damaged its reputation, seeking a nominal sum of CN¥1 in compensation and a public apology. In response, Toutiao filed a complaint the following day against Tencent for allegedly unfair competition and asking for CN¥90 million in economic losses.

Data transfer class action lawsuit

In November 2019, a class action lawsuit was filed in California that alleged that TikTok transferred personally identifiable information of U.S. persons to servers located in China owned by Tencent and Alibaba. The lawsuit also accused ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, of taking user content without their permission. The plaintiff of the lawsuit, college student Misty Hong, downloaded the app but said she never created an account. She realized a few months later that TikTok has created an account for her using her information (such as biometrics) and made a summary of her information. The lawsuit also alleged that information was sent to Chinese tech giant Baidu. In July 2020, twenty lawsuits against TikTok were merged into a single class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. In February 2021, TikTok agreed to pay $92 million to settle the class action lawsuit.

Voice actor lawsuit

In May 2021, Canadian voice actor Bev Standing filed a lawsuit against TikTok over the use of her voice in the text-to-speech feature without her permission. The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York. TikTok declined to comment. Standing believes that TikTok used recordings she made for the Chinese government-run Institute of Acoustics. The voice used in the feature was subsequently changed.

Market Information Research Foundation lawsuit

In June 2021, the Netherlands-based Market Information Research Foundation (SOMI) filed a €1.4 billion lawsuit on behalf of Dutch parents against TikTok, alleging that the app gathers data on children without adequate permission.

Blackout Challenge lawsuits

Multiple lawsuits have been filed against TikTok, accusing the platform of hosting content that led to the death of at least seven children. The lawsuits claim that children died after attempting the " Blackout challenge", a TikTok trend that involves strangling or asphyxiating someone or themselves until they black out ( passing out). TikTok stated that search queries for the challenge do not show any results, linking instead to protective resources, while the parents of two of the deceased argued that the content showed up on their children's TikTok feeds, without them searching for it.

Cooperation with law enforcement

In June 2023 The New Zealand Herald reported that TikTok, working in cooperation with both New Zealand and Australian police, deleted 340 accounts and 2,000 videos associated with criminal gangs including the Mongrel Mob, Black Power, Killer Beez, the Comancheros, Mongols, and Rebels. TikTok had earlier drawn criticism for hosting content by organised crime groups promoting the gang lifestyle and fights. A TikTok spokesperon reiterated the platform's efforts to countering "violent" and "hateful" organisations' content and cooperating with police. New Zealand Police Commissioner Andrew Coster praised the platform for taking a "socially-responsible stance" against gangs.

References

External links

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TikTok, whose mainland Chinese counterpart is Douyin ( Chinese: 抖音; pinyin: ), is a short-form video hosting service owned by ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 3 seconds to 10 minutes. Since their launches, TikTok and Douyin have gained global popularity.

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Senators proposed a bill to ban TikTok from all government devices in fear of espionage. TikTok has admitted to spying on individuals when app is running in the background.

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Two US senators proposed a bill on Thursday that would see social video app TikTok banned from all government devices over espionage concerns.

Republican senators Josh Hawley, of Missouri, and Rick Scott, of Florida, say that links between TikTok and the Chinese Communist Party mean the app could pose a national security risk if used for spying.

"TikTok is owned by a Chinese company that includes Chinese Communist Party members on its board, and it is required by law to share user data with Beijing," said Hawley in a statement. "The company even admitted it collects user data while their app is running in the background -- including the messages people send, pictures they share, their keystrokes and location data, you name it." The app has "no place" on government devices, he added.

The company said it's been taking steps to allay worries.

"While we think the concerns are unfounded, we understand them and are continuing to further strengthen our safeguards while increasing our dialogue with lawmakers to help explain our policies," said a spokesman for TikTok in a statement. "We also recently announced a transparency center in LA which will give third party experts insight into our source code, and our efforts around data privacy, security and moderation practices."

If passed, the bill would mean that no employee of the United States, officer of the United States, member of Congress, congressional employee, or officer or employee of a government corporation could download the app onto a work device. The ban would also extend to any other apps created by TikTok's parent company, ByteDance.

There is precedent for such bans by the Trump administration, which has also outlawed the sale of Huawei devices in the country, as well the use of its networking equipment -- again due to that company's purported coziness with China's governing Communist Party. Huawei has consistently denied these links, but the company's presence in the US remains minimal regardless.

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Senators want to ban TikTok from US government devices over espionage fears

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Two US senators proposed a bill on Thursday that would see social video app TikTok banned from all government devices over espionage concerns. Republican senators Josh Hawley, of Missouri, and Rick Scott, of Florida, say that links between TikTok and the Chinese Communist Party mean the app could pose a national security risk if used for spying.

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TikTok was caught monitoring the content of users clipboards on iPhones. They were spying and seeing what individuals were putting on there.

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AFP via Getty Images

As I on June 23, Apple has fixed a serious problem in iOS 14, due in the fall, where apps can secretly access the clipboard on users' devices. Once the new OS is released, users will be warned whenever an app reads the last thing copied to the clipboard. As I earlier this year, this is more than a theoretical risk for users, with countless apps already caught abusing their privacy in this way.

Worryingly, one of the apps caught snooping by security researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk was China's TikTok. Given other security concerns raised about the app, as well as broader worries given its Chinese origins, this became a headline issue. At the time, TikTok owner Bytedance told me the problem related to the use of an outdated Google advertising SDK that was being replaced.

Well, maybe not. With the release of the new clipboard warning in the beta version of iOS 14, now with developers, TikTok seems to have been caught abusing the clipboard in a quite extraordinary way. So it seems that TikTok didn't stop this invasive practice back in April as promised after all.

Worse, the excuse has now changed.

According to TikTok, the issue is now "triggered by a feature designed to identify repetitive, spammy behavior," and has told me that it has "already submitted an updated version of the app to the App Store removing the anti-spam feature to eliminate any potential confusion." In other words: We've been caught doing something we shouldn't, we've rushed out a fix.

TikTok also told me that the platform "is committed to protecting users' privacy and being transparent about how our app works." No comment on that one. TikTok added that it "looks forward to welcoming outside experts to our Transparency Center later this year."

When I covered the original TikTok clipboard issue, the company was adamant it was not their problem and related to an outdated library in their app. "The clipboard access issues," a spokesperson told me, "showed up due to third-party SDKs, in our case an older version Google Ads SDK, so we do not get access to the information through this (presumably they do but we cannot speak to that). We are in the processes of updating so that the third-party SDK will no longer have access."

TikTok assured me it was being fixed and questioned coverage that suggested this was an issue. "It's a Google Ads SDK issue," they assured again in a later email, "so we need to make the change in which version of that SDK we use. TikTok does not get access to the data, but we are updating regardless to resolve it."

MORE FROM FORBES COVID-19 Tracking Apps: Beware, This Is What Millions Of Users Are Not Being Told

Now Apple's welcome iOS 14 security and privacy changes have caught them red-handed still doing something they shouldn't. Something they said was fixed. TikTok isn't alone-other apps will now need to change deliberate or inadvertent clipboard access. But TikTok is the highest profile and most totemic of the apps caught out, given its prior coverage and wider issues.

The most acute issue with this vulnerability is Apple's universal clipboard functionality, which means that anything I copy on my Mac or iPad can be read by my iPhone, and vice versa. So, if TikTok is active on your phone while you work, the app can basically read anything and everything you copy on another device: Passwords, work documents, sensitive emails, financial information. Anything.

Earlier in the year, when TikTok was first exposed, the security researchers acknowledged that there was no way to tell what the app might be doing with user data, and its abuse was lost in the mix of many others. Now it's feeling different. iOS users can relax, knowing that Apple's latest safeguard will force TikTok to make the change, which in itself shows how critical a fix this has been. For Android users, though, there is no word yet as to whether this is an issue for them as well.

MORE FROM FORBES Black Lives Matter: U.S. Protesters Tracked By Secretive Phone Location Technology

"Apple dismissed the risks that we highlighted and explained that iOS already had mechanisms to counter all of the risks," the researchers told me earlier this week. "But the mechanisms that Apple provided were not effective to protect user privacy." Following their initial report, they explained, "there was a tremendous public interaction with the topic-not only iOS users, but also Android users demand more restriction and transparency about the apps that use the system-wide clipboard."

Apple originally dismissed the clipboard vulnerability as an issue, and only provided a fix after significant media coverage of the security research. This latest news shows just how important a fix that will be.

All iPhone users should update to the latest version of TikTok as soon as it's released-and given it is actively reading your clipboard, you might want to bear that in mind while using the app ahead of that update.

... Read More

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Warning-Apple Suddenly Catches TikTok Secretly Spying On Millions Of iPhone Users

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As I on June 23, Apple has fixed a serious problem in iOS 14, due in the fall, where apps can secretly access the clipboard on users' devices. Once the new OS is released, users will be warned whenever an app reads the last thing copied to the clipboard.

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China is spying on iPhone users through their app

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In the first months of 2018, TikTok was mist downloaded app in the world

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Global mobile app installs on Apple's App Store and Google Play grew 7.6 percent in the first quarter of 2018 to 25.4 billion, according to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates. Growth of first-time app downloads on the App Store outpaced Google Play at 13 percent versus 5.4 percent, totaling 7.8 billion in all, compared to 17.6 billion.

Read on for our full top 10 charts and download our free Q1 2018 Data Digest for download estimates covering the quarter's top 20 apps and publishers, along with the leading categories on both stores.

Netflix once again led worldwide app revenue, while installs continued to be dominated by apps from Facebook, including WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and the company's eponymous app itself. Music-centric social network Tik Tok dominated the charts in Asia, taking it to No. 1 on iOS.

A new champion of the mobile gaming battlefield was crowned in Tencent's PUBG Mobile, the world's most installed title. Meanwhile, Tencent also led game revenue yet again with Honor of Kings.

Tencent was also the world's leader in overall mobile app revenue and mobile game revenue, while it was No. 2 for non-game app revenue after IAC, owner of Tinder. Facebook was tops for overall and non-game app downloads, while PUBG Mobile sent Tencent to No. 1 for mobile game installs.

Get Our Latest Report

Comprising download estimates from our Store Intelligence platform, the report includes:

Rankings of Q1 2018's top apps and publishers on the App Store and Google Play.

The quarter's most popular app categories and their year-over-year-growth.

Insights into the quarter's most important stories and trends.

Click below to download the report in PDF format:
To learn more about Store Intelligence and how our industry-leading data can elevate your mobile marketing efforts, schedule a demo today.

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The Top Mobile Apps, Games, and Publishers of Q1 2018: Sensor Tower's Data Digest

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Global mobile app installs on Apple's App Store and Google Play grew 7.6 percent in the first quarter of 2018 to 25.4 billion, according to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates. Growth of first-time app downloads on the App Store outpaced Google Play at 13 percent versus 5.4 percent, totaling 7.8 billion in all, compared to 17.6 billion.

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The intent of the acquisition of Musical.ly was to enter the United States user market.

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Goodbye Musical.ly, TikTok is your new god now

Musical.ly users opened their phones to a surprise today as they found the app replaced with a new logo and name: TikTok. The app was acquired by Chinese company ByteDance in November 2017, which absorbed Musical.ly into its own TikTok app this morning. Existing Musical.ly users have been migrated over to their new TikTok accounts, which have been updated with a new interface but still retains the core feature of both apps: short-form videos up to 15 seconds.

Teen karaoke app Musical.ly, which had just reached a milestone of 100 million monthly active users, is part of ByteDance's larger strategy to break into the US market. In the first quarter of 2018, TikTok was the world's most downloaded iOS app, according to a report from US research firm Sensor Tower.

TikTok will remain a standalone app in China, where it operates as Douyin and boasts over 300 million monthly active users. You might have even seen Douyin clips floating around before: maybe in the form of the " Karma's a bitch" makeover meme that went viral earlier this year, or news of Peppa Pig getting banned from the platform due to her status as a " subversive gangster icon."

Some Musical.ly users are welcoming the changes, while others are debating how to identify themselves going forward:

musically is now "tik tok" but i will always be a muser. not a clock.
- Brian (@brianbertoline) August 2, 2018

With Vine successor v2 " postponed indefinitely," TikTok seems like the closest thing we'll get to having Vine back. But although Musical.ly and TikTok are both platforms for sharing 15-second videos, TikTok will be missing an essential part of the Musical.ly history, which was built on teens lip-syncing and dancing to music. All the features to make karaoke videos are still there, but rebranding the app with a new name and forcing the old Musical.ly users to migrate to a new platform is a move that may alienate the original community. It'll be up to the teens to decide whether TikTok's popularity in China will translate to success in the US.

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The popular Musical.ly app has been rebranded as TikTok

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Musical.ly users opened their phones to a surprise today as they found the app replaced with a new logo and name: TikTok. The app was acquired by Chinese company ByteDance in November 2017, which absorbed Musical.ly into its own TikTok app this morning.

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Marco Rubio wants the CFIUS to open a national security review about the acquisition of Musical.ly by ByteDance. He believes that China is censoring their content on these apps and believes that the CFIUS must look into this matter.

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Article brings up an investigation about how china may be taking user's information from the app TikTok

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TikTok Said to Be Under National Security Review (Published 2019)

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The review comes after lawmakers raised concerns about TikTok’s growing influence in the United States.