TikTok does not provide information about its current number of users, citing company policy. Download statistics suggest the number has kept growing since. In September 2021, the platform announced it had reached a billion active monthly users - a milestone that it took Facebook over eight years to reach. In 2018, ByteDance launched TikTok, which is modeled after its Chinese app Douyin, on the global market. Within a few years, it rose from a niche app for lip-synching kids to one of the world's leading social media platforms, which users increasingly turn to for running search queries or following the news. The app's rapid ascent is unprecedented in the history of the internet. But pressure on regulators to rein in the platform has been mounting since it was revealed in December that ByteDance employees had accessed the data of Western journalists to investigate leaks to the press.Ī TikTok spokeswoman told DW that the incident was 'the misconduct of certain individuals who are no longer employed at ByteDance,' adding that protocols for who can access user data have since 'been significantly … hardened.' She argued that while TikTok user data was stored in data centers outside China, 'some limited employee access' to the information from within China was necessary 'to support our global community.'Īt the same time, the spokeswoman insisted that 'we have never been asked to provide TikTok user data to the Chinese government and have never provided any data to it.' How TikTok got so big The app's parent company, Chinese technology conglomerate ByteDance, has long been under scrutiny for how it collects and processes user data. TikTok also deserves close attention 'because it's the fastest-growing social media in the world, and its demographic is very young,' she added. 'There are legitimate concerns about potential surveillance by the Chinese regime,' Estelle Masse of Brussels-based digital rights nonprofit Access Now told DW. Politicians around the world have raised concerns about Beijing's potential influence on the app Image: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/picture alliance

Like the Trojan horse in Greek mythology, they warn, Beijing could use the app to gain access to sensitive user data and spread misleading information. Their fear is that China's government could hijack TikTok to push its interests. While the European Union is about to implement legislation that will force TikTok to aggressively police harmful content, countries from the US to Japan are mulling how to regulate the app - or even follow India's example and outright ban it. Lawmakers worldwide are debating how to restrict, if not outlaw, the use of the Chinese video-streaming service, which has become one of the most popular apps among teenagers around the world. TikTok is in the crosshairs of many authorities and monitoring bodies.

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