Knives Out for TikTok as Journo Reveals her Spy Story
FT’s Criddle claims ByteDance spied on her—because she wrote damaging stories about TikTok.
A technology reporter says she was “surveilled” by TikTok staff. The saga has left ex‑BBC tech journalist Cristina Criddle (pictured) “on edge,” losing sleep and forced to ponder, “What is TikTok?”
TikTok parent ByteDance denies she was spied on. In today’s SB Blogwatch, we feel the direction the wind is blowing.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: PEAS.
Clock Ticking for U.S. Ban
What’s the craic? Cristina Criddle reports—“TikTok spied on me”:
“Bullied and shouted at”
I received a cryptic phone call from a PR director at TikTok. … I’d written extensively about the company for the Financial Times, so we’d spoken before. … She wanted me to know, “as a courtesy”, that The New York Times had just published a story I ought to read … and that I should call her back once I’d read it.
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[It] claimed ByteDance employees accessed two reporters’ … personal information, including their physical locations … as part of an attempt to find the writers’ sources, after a series of damaging stories. … The PR director … confirmed I was one of the journalists who had been surveilled. … Over the following months, the episode became just one in a long series of scandals and crises that call into question what TikTok really is.
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Last spring, I met an employee. … She said she was given unachievable targets, asked to work all hours of the day … sometimes putting in 18-hour shifts, and bullied and shouted at by managers. … She wasn’t alone. TikTok employees around the world [must] use software employees claim tracks their performance and makes almost everything, including user data, visible to ByteDance offices in China. [Yet] TikTok has always maintained that access to user data from staff in China was highly restricted.
Yeah, right. Mack DeGeurin calls it, —“TikTok’s unforced error”:
“Ban the app”
The tracking effort ultimately failed to find the leaker and resulted in a publicity nightmare for ByteDance and TikTok. … ByteDance fired all four of the employees involved in the scheme and re-structured its internal audit team. Still, the missteps only emboldened the company’s critics, who’ve spoken out about Chinese employees accessing US user data.
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TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew … claimed the monitoring didn’t amount to “spying.” Either way, the employee’s actions caught the attention of the Department of Justice, which has launched an investigation.
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The … saga has provided lawmakers in the US looking to ban the app even more ammunition. There are currently around half a dozen bills floating around Congress that, one way or another, would result in TikTok being restricted on US devices. In Montana, the legislature made history last month by passing the first state-wide TikTok ban, leaving thousands of local creators unsure of what comes next.
TL;DR? shelbystripes has got your back:
An extremely lengthy essay asking why a Chinese company would spy on them.
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The answer: … “Because I was reporting unflattering news.”
Ouch, this is bad. Rob Scammell lists the reasons why:
This brilliant reporting … is hugely damaging for TikTok on two levels: …
1. Spying on a journalist.
2. The lack of a valid response/explanation/apology.
But whatabout Facebook and other social apps? Don’t they track us too? duxup draws a line:
Targeted spying on a specific journalist ≠ general data collection. There’s an important difference.
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This was a pretty specific case of targeting a specific individual. … I think journalists at this point would be wise to maintain separate devices for journalistic work / journalistic communication, personal life, and research. That’s a pain but I think inevitable.
Similarly, JulesLt711 hammers home the point:
[There’s a] distinction between an app tracking your usage, and a company actively … spying on journalists to uncover their sources.
But it wasn’t long before the victim-blaming started. jenningsthecat (no relation) thinks Criddle “should have known better”:
Anyone who is as plugged in and aware as a Financial Times reporter should be, should have expected this and taken precautions. If what happened here is a surprise to Ms. Criddle, she has no business reporting on anything in the tech sector—because she lacks the insight and deductive capabilities to do the job. Hell, there might even be an argument that her ability to consume and interpret news stories is questionable.
Ban TikTok NOW!!1! But onjectic worries about unintended consequences:
Initially I was in favor of a TikTok ban. … I truly do believe its a bad thing being pushed by a bad actor (CCP), until I realized most justifications I could come up with can also be used to arbitrarily censor anything else deemed “unhealthy” or a security concern.
For government employees, a ban makes sense, but for everyone else a ban needs to have the correct safeguards so that it cannot be used to further limit peoples freedoms. And if the safeguards cannot be found, then there should be no ban.
Meanwhile, mmdurrant doesn’t mince words:
If you have TikTok installed, you’re a mindless idiot.
And Finally:
You have been reading SB Blogwatch by Richi Jennings. Richi curates the best bloggy bits, finest forums, and weirdest websites … so you don’t have to. Hate mail may be directed to @RiCHi or [email protected]. Ask your doctor before reading. Your mileage may vary. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Do not stare into laser with remaining eye. E&OE. 30.
Image sauce: Cristina Criddle (via Twitter)
