TikTok on the Apple app store Jan. 10, 2023. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Recent changes to the popular social media app TikTok have some users upset and leaving the platform.
A local influencer shared his concerns after noticing potential censorship and privacy issues.
“TikTok was my biggest platform. I had over 2,400 followers on it,” Duane Gamez said.
Gamez is known online as “Foodie Duane the Wisconsinite” and used TikTok to review local restaurants and their food. However, he switched to Instagram and deleted TikTok a few days ago after noticing suspicious changes to the app’s terms and conditions and privacy policy.
“They wanted me to agree to a bunch of new rules, basically. Asking me about if I was an immigrant, if I was transgender. Basically, just a bunch of personal questions,” Gamez said.
Gamez said he has never been asked these questions by TikTok or any other social media company before.
And Gamez doesn’t appear to be the only user experiencing this. As The Associated Press reported Tuesday, TikTok users are seeing censorship of videos critical of President Donald Trump, ICE and mentions of Jeffrey Epstein.
Gamez said some of his content was censored too, even though it was unrelated to those topics.
“I do review a lot of Mexican food,” Gamez said. “With that being said, I actually, one of my videos, they wouldn’t post it because in my hashtag, I said authentic Mexican food.”
New ownership of TikTok’s operation in the United States was finalized just last week. The change was made to comply with an executive order signed by Trump in September aimed at protecting user data.
On Tuesday, TikTok said it was experiencing a major infrastructure issue triggered by a power outage at one of its U.S. data centers, and had nothing to do with censorship.
“Consumers consume a lot of data on TikTok,” UW-Oshkosh Teaching Assistant Professor Kathy Fredrickson said. “It’s not going to be a perfect transition for any organization having to streamline and deal with a lot of data.”
Fredrickson works with students and small businesses on social media marketing. She said it’s very possible the transition of TikTok is causing technical glitches. She also reminds people that TikTok is a private business.
“Social media is putting your message out on rented land. It’s much different than building your own properties, like your website, your blogs. So, everything that you put on rented land is on someone else’s property,” Fredrickson said.
Fredrickson said it’s too early to tell if certain words are now being restricted on TikTok, but warns everyone’s words get tagged for advertising.
In an update Tuesday, TikTok said U.S. users’ experiences may still have some technical issues, including when posting new content. It went on to say the company is committed to bringing TikTok back to its full capacity as soon as possible.
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