As the political controversy surrounding TikTok‘s apparent connections to the Chinese government continues to heat up, three of the platform’s biggest stars — with a combined 37+ million followers on the platform — are revealing their plans to quit the app and move over to a rival!
Noah Beck, Josh Richards, and Griffin Johnson (pictured above, left to right) collectively spoke to DailyMail.com about their plans this week, revealing that they’d mutually decided to slowly withdraw from the app and move more and more of their content over to Triller, another video-sharing platform.
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The major move here stems from concerns that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, which is based in Beijing, China, could be sharing user data with the Chinese government. This worry first came about after 2017, when a new law was passed in the nation stating that all native companies “have an obligation to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.”
The platform’s massive popularity with American teenagers has lawmakers and regulators concerned about whether their private information is unwittingly being used by the government in Beijing. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump told reporters his administration was “thinking about making a decision” on whether to ban the app in the United States as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is actively reviewing it for potential national security risks.
All that political concern has weighed heavily on Richards, Johnson, and Beck as they try to determine their own futures as social media stars. Worried about TikTok’s future after POTUS’ remarks about the possibility of a ban, Richards noted (below):
“Obviously it made us feel a bit unsafe about the app we were using. But it was more than just how we felt. We wanted our audience to be watching our content on an app that’s safe.”
Alarmed by the possible origin of their preferred app, the TikTok trio did some of their own digging and discovered an investigation from cyber-security company Penetrum earlier this year which found that nearly 40% of the known IP addresses linked to TikTok originate in China. Considering how the app is officially banned in the country, that’s an alarming number of unknown and unaccounted-for accounts, all of which can be accessed by the Chinese government themselves.
Other related concerns unearthed by Penetrum, such as an “excessive amount of data harvesting,” and “vulnerabilities in TikTok’s code” leave the young celebs even more worried. For one, according to the report, there’s an element of the social media app’s code that allows it to capture all data on a user’s phone, including potentially all of that user’s text messages.
For Richards, those privacy problems — as well as recent claims that TikTok allegedly blocked Black Lives Matter-related videos — should be of utmost concern to content creators and users:
“As a creator, it’s our responsibility to think about the people that follow us. They give us the lifestyle we now lead – it’s all because of them. If we’re not thinking about their best interests, that shows a lot about us. TikTok — and social media platforms generally — are supposed to be a place where people can put out their ideas and beliefs. When we saw such a strong movement, getting blocked or shadow banned — that concerned us quite a bit. They weren’t taking those voices very seriously at all.”
Wow. Well said!
Originally, the three stars debated whether they should develop their own app before eventually settling with Triller. Over the coming months, then, the plan is for Johnson, Richards, and Beck to slowly withdraw from TikTok, and more frequently post on Triller, until they transition completely away from the China-based app.
Johnson told DM about what went into the decision to make the move, saying:
“This is way bigger than just us or the platforms we have. We have the opportunity to do something far bigger than us. It’s important to look after our audience’s safety. That’s much more important to me, than me. I feel like, we’re just trying to set an example of what would be to do right now, and that’s Triller. I think other influencers will agree that it’s best for themselves and that people that follow them too. This is a great opportunity and it gives us a lot of purpose. I know I feel really safe and we’re really excited where this journey is headed.”
We’ll see if it works…
TikTok didn’t have a comment for the DM piece here, though in the past the company has downplayed its ties to China by arguing that (1) it operates separately from parent company ByteDance and (2) its data centers are all located entirely outside of China, and thus none of its data is subject to Chinese laws.
Related: Farrah Abraham Attempts To Defend Bizarre Viral TikTok Dildo Video…
And yet Joe Biden‘s presidential campaign ordered its own staff members to delete TikTok from both their personal and work phones on Monday, too. So at least judging by the upcoming American election in November, it seems like both candidates could be seriously open to cutting off the app in the US altogether. And thus it’s entirely understandable why some of its biggest and most lucrative creators would want to leave and carry on elsewhere!
What do U think about this situation, Perezcious readers? Could this be the beginning of the end of TikTok’s previously-meteoric rise? Can young social media stars like Richards, Johnson, and Beck transition to new platforms and still find success?? And are you at all worried about all the allegations regarding the Chinese government’s potential ability to spy using the app itself or nah?!
Sound OFF with your take on everything here down in the comments (below)…
[Image via TikTok]