Bytedance/TikTok automated Uyghur censorship
Occurred: February 2021
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The Chinese government demanded TikTok owner Bytedance develop algorithms to identify and automatically delete Uyghur language posts, giving creedance to rumours of ethnic censorship by Beijing.
The employee, who worked for a technology team that supports Bytedance's central Trust and Safety team, also alleged the company is also actively censoring and deleting content critical of Beijing.
The employee wrote pseudonymously in Protocol that the technologies created by his team 'supported the company's entire content moderation in and outside China, including Douyin at home and its international equivalent TikTok'.
Rumours of Bytedance's close relationship with the Chinese government, and its surveillance and censorship of Uyghur-related content through its Douyin and TikTok services have long circulated.
Databank
Operator: Bytedance/TikTok/Douyin
Developer: Bytedance/TikTok/Douyin
Country: China; Global
Sector: Technology
Purpose: Identify/remove toxic content
Technology: Recommendation algorithm
Issue: Freedom of expression - censorship
Transparency: Governance
System
TikTok website, Wikipedia profile
ByteDance website, Wikipedia profile
News, commentary, analysis
https://www.protocol.com/china/i-built-bytedance-censorship-machine
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/25/tiktok-insiders-say-chinese-parent-bytedance-in-control.html
https://www.foxnews.com/world/bytedance-whistleblower-china-mass-censorship
https://netzpolitik.org/2021/tiktok-insider-berichtet-ueber-zensurtechniken-bei-bytedance/
Page info
Type: Issue
Published: February 2021
Last updated: January 2022