Exposed: ByteDance (TikTok)

ByteDance operates TikTok, the fastest-growing social media platform in history with over 1.5 billion monthly active users, and Douyin, its Chinese counterpart with 750 million daily users. TikTok's recommendation algorithm is considered the most powerful content distribution system ever built, capable of accurately predicting user preferences within minutes of first use. This algorithmic power is fueled by aggressive data collection including keystroke patterns, device identifiers, clipboard contents, browsing history within the app, facial feature mapping, voice prints, location data, and behavioral biometric patterns. The Chinese government's National Intelligence Law requires Chinese companies to cooperate with state intelligence operations, raising concerns that ByteDance could be compelled to share user data with Beijing. Project Texas, a $1.5 billion initiative to store US user data on Oracle servers, was designed to address these concerns but investigators found Chinese employees still accessed US data over 100 times after the migration was supposedly complete. Congress passed a forced divestiture law in April 2024, which the Supreme Court upheld in January 2025, though enforcement has been delayed. TikTok collects more data points per user session than any other major social media app according to independent security audits.