It is truly disturbing that a simple social media service where the majority of its users are young teenagers has recently been deemed by professionals as deadly.
TikTok is a social media application owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts short-form, user-submitted videos ranging from a duration of fifteen seconds to ten minutes. Much like many other social networking platforms, the videos are either presented on a “friends” section, displaying videos uploaded by “TikTokers” whom one is friends with, or a “for you page (commonly referred to as an “FYP”),” which features personalized, interest-based videos selected by a complex data algorithm. But there is no way this can be “frightening” or “dangerous,” though, right? Wrong!
U.S. professionals have warned the nation that the Chinese government may possibly be demanding ByteDance to share their TikTok users’ data and information with them. At least 24 of the states in the U.S. have already banned the application on state owned devices for this very reason, and many more are to come in the near future. This is a primary reason why it is essential to be vigilant if you are using TikTok or another similar social media platform.
The average high school student, however, does not care about these data breaches
tommy saul ’25
The average high school student, however, does not care about these data breaches: one might say, “If they don’t have my credit card information, then why does this situation even matter? The Chinese government doesn’t need to know anything about me!” Although that might be the case, many students are oblivious to privacy laws. Technological privacy is incredibly important because it is a right that supports alternative rights and autonomy. It supports the freedom of speech along with the freedom to assemble, and most notably, the freedom to exercise your liberties when you do not expect to be monitored. This essentially represents the basic right to privacy, or to be left alone.
William “Will” Marks is a technology policy researcher and an affiliate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. When I asked him about the true danger of social media platforms like TikTok, he explained, “Targeted information can influence the way that you think. That is the danger of the ‘for you page.’ Likewise, it can be dangerous when someone else chooses what you are watching. They can push information across to your screen, which oftentimes makes you feel a certain way: it might force you to choose a political side, it might make you angry, or even worse, depressed. The more the app knows about you, the better it is for its algorithm.”
Everyone has secrets they want to keep to themselves, and even if what they are hiding is not vastly significant, you generally do not want anyone else…obtaining this information since they can use it against you.
tommy saul ’25
TikTok and other platforms’ artificial intelligence learns from likes, dislikes, comments, and posts. It dictates what you are watching, not only based on your interests, but also by what they want you to see, sometimes resulting in anxiety, and unfortunately, even suicide. Other governments around the world (much like the Chinese government) could potentially blackmail users. Everyone has secrets they want to keep to themselves, and even if what they are hiding is not vastly significant, you generally do not want anyone else—let alone an entirely separate country—obtaining this information since they can use it against you. Additionally, your breached data may not affect you now, but it can certainly hurt down the line. It is impossible to predict exactly what will be viewed as illicit or inappropriate in the future, so once again, being conscientious of what you are posting, liking, disliking, or commenting and confirming that none of it is personal information is a necessity.
“So how can I ensure that my data and information remains private?” one might ask. “Deleting the app would be the most complete thing to do moving forward, but it is understandably difficult because there is a lot of value to being on social media, especially in a high schooler’s social life,” Will said. “You can increase your media literacy so you are cognizant of what is fake news (along with what you are posting). And finally, we can make sure political agencies regulate these platforms.”
I am not saying all social media platforms are bad—just be careful and make good decisions when using them.
Tommy saul ’25
Although it would be wise to stay away from TikTok in particular, I am not saying all social media platforms are bad—just be careful and make good decisions when using them, because if you do not; tick-tock, there goes your private information.
