Chinese social media app TikTok has allegedly been keeping a log of its users watching gay content on its platform for at least a year, according to former employees of the company.
According to the Wall Street Journal, former employees raised several concerns over the platform’s alleged practice of recording its users who watched gay content as it could be used to identify LGBTQI users and put them at risk of blackmail in cases of leaks or breach of their privacy via third-party data collections.
The social media platform allows users to engage in content creation and video-sharing of up to ten minutes per video. As of December last year, the company reported 689 million people using the app worldwide.
There have been serious privacy concerns, with greater calls for transparency in tech and social-media conglomerates, including Facebook, Twitter, Uber and Snapchat.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the US Congress in March 2023, after calls for a law to ban the social media platform.
