TikTok fires back at accusations of Chinese censorship of its content

TikTok has been under fire as of late from the US Congress over alleged ties with the Chinese government and now the video-sharing platform, owned by ByteDance, is firing back at the accusations. [caption id=“attachment_6414241” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] TikTok app seen on a mobile phone screen. Image: Reuters.[/caption] In a blog post, TikTok has said that it doesn’t censor content critical of the Chinese government after senior senators Chuck Schumer and Tom Cotton asked US intelligence officials to investigate the company. “We are committed to transparency and accountability in how we support our TikTok users in the US and around the world. In light of recent claims, we believe it is critical to set the record straight on some specific issues,” said TikTok in a statement. Concerns were mainly due to the allegations of censorship and data insecurity at TikTok. However, the company has denied that Chinese officials can access its data. “We store all TikTok US user data in the United States, with backup redundancy in Singapore.” As per a report by The Verge, TikTok has maintained that it’s content moderators are not getting any inputs from China’s government. “We have never been asked by the Chinese government to remove any content and we would not do so if asked. Period,” said blog post reads.