Name: A senior TikTok executive admitted the company used to censor content critical of China, 'specifically with regard to the Uighur situation'
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A senior TikTok executive admitted the company used to censor content critical of China, 'specifically with regard to the Uighur situation'

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The words "Business Insider".Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.270 to win51 to control218 to controlA TikTok executive admitted that the video-sharing app censored content likely to anger China in the past, but insisted that is no longer the case.At a UK parliamentary committee hearing on Wednesday, Elizabeth Kanter, TikTok's UK director of public policy, was asked by Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani whether the app had quashed content about the Uighur crisis in Xinjiang, where at least 1 million Uighur Muslims and other minorities in so-called "reeducation camps."Kanter said that although the current policy is not to censor content, that wasn't always the case. "In the early days of TikTok there was some policies in place that took what we call a 'blunt instrument' to the way in which content was censored," she said."At that time we took a decision [...] to not allow conflict on the platform, and so there was some incidents where content was not allowed on the platform, specifically with regard to the Uighur situation," she said"If you look at the platform now and search for the term 'Uighur' on the TikTok app, you can find plenty of content about the Uighurs. There's plenty of content that's critical of China,""We do not in any way, shape, or form censor content or moderate in a way that would be favorable to China. You are right to say that those were a couple of years ago the content moderation guidelines, but they're absolutely not our policy now," she said.When pressed by Ghani about exactly when the policy changed, Kanter was vague. "Those policies have not been our policies for at least over a year," she said.Ghani asked Kanter if TikTok would submit to an "algorithmic censor review," so the committee could verify her claims. "I can invite you to come into our transparency center and review our algorithm," Kanter replied.In obtained leaked documents detailing TikTok's moderation guidelines, which forbade "criticism/attack towards policies, social rules of any country," and listed Tibet and the Tiananmen Square massacre as examples of content to take down. TikTok's response at the time was that the guidelines in question were outdated, and had been retired in May 2019.TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has made efforts to distance itself from China and any implication that it might have troubling links with the Chinese government.TikTok's ownership made headlines in August when the Trump administration declared over security concerns. TikTok , and said it does not share data with China.The TikTok app itself does not operate in China, where a sister app called Douyin serves the market. During her testimony, Kanter said TikTok's corporate structure meant the company was not beholden to China's laws on data.She said: "TikTok as a company that doesn't operate in china would never provide data to any Chinese authority," adding that China has "no jurisdiction" over TikTok's data, which is stored on servers in the US with backups in Singapore.NewsletterYour morning cheat sheet to get you caught up on what you need to know in tech. Sign up to 10 Things in Tech You Need to Know Today.Something is loading.Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

The words "Business Insider".Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.270 to win51 to control218 to controlA TikTok executive admitted that the video-sharing app censored content likely to anger China in the past, but insisted that is no longer the case.At a UK parliamentary committee hearing on Wednesday, Elizabeth Kanter, TikTok's UK director of public policy, was asked by Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani whether the app had quashed content about the Uighur crisis in Xinjiang, where at least 1 million Uighur Muslims and other...

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Isobel Asher Hamilton

Business Insider is an American financial and business news website founded in 2009 and owned by the German publishing house Axel Springer. It operates 14 national editions and an international edition. Several national editions are published in local languages.

A senior TikTok executive admitted the company used to censor content critical of China, 'specifically with regard to the Uighur situation'

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