Blanket Bill Bans TikTok On Government Phones Just As Apps Are Making Algorithm Changes

If you’re a TikTok user, your For You page will be a little more transparent, the company said in a blog post Tuesday morning. It comes hours after unveiling a mandatory passage total spending bill that includes a clause banning TikTok from.

The two moves symbolize TikTok’s difficult years in the United States as it seeks to reassure the federal government that it has no ties to or influence from the Chinese Communist Party. A growing number of lawmakers are becoming increasingly skeptical of his TikTok, believing that the China-based company that owns TikTok, ByteDance, is actually controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. This control could mean that the Chinese government could try to force TikTok to provide data about its users in the United States, or that the Chinese government could use TikTok to spread propaganda or disinformation to TikTok’s relatively young user base, such as For You. It could mean that you could force it through your feed. Home page of the app.

TikTok says it is not happy with the bill and does not see a need for it.

TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement: “We are disappointed that Congress has moved to ban TikTok on government devices. Recode.

Oberwetter also said the timing of the announcement of a bill banning TikTok on government devices and TikTok features aimed at increasing transparency about the inner workings was a coincidence. This new feature allows users to see why the platform sent a particular video. He said this is part of the “meaningful transparency” TikTok brings to its users. .

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If you want to know why TikTok recommends a video, tap the video’s Share button (the arrow on the right), then tap Why this video? in the menu that appears. We know some of the reasons why TikTok targeted you in that video, but we can’t confirm all of them.

So if you’re wondering why the For You page has become a veritable Viking of tragic content or just a frog for some users, it might give you some clues. Or maybe you learn very little. Other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have “why am I seeing this” tools for advertising, but their explanations are not complete and often not particularly helpful.

The feature is still rolling out, so it’s unclear how detailed TikTok’s “Why this video” description will be. And once it’s accessible to all users, TikTok should take to heart “why is this video telling the truth?” TikTok is also giving more broader control over how and why its content is directed at users, as part of an effort to allay fears among parents and senators that the Chinese government is telling their children what to watch. provides a detailed explanation.

But it’s doubtful whether the emergence of transparency about its algorithms will change lawmakers’ minds about TikTok. We are concentrating on the Chinese law that says you have to cooperate with the government if you do. There is no proof that TikTok did this, and TikTok has repeatedly denied it ever did, but for some the possibility alone is enough.

TikTok has already been banned by department on some government devices. First introduced by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) in a session before Congress and now included in a blanket bill to ban his TikTok on devices used by government employees Bill. We do not ban apps on the phones of other branch employees, such as members of Congress and their staff.There have been similar moves to ban TikTok at the state level There are at least 14 Republican-led states, and that number seems to be growing almost every day. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), a longtime opponent of the app, recently introduced a bipartisan bill banning TikTok outright in the United States.

TikTok is also working toward an agreement with the federal government’s Commission on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The agency could dissolve the TikTok-Musical.ly merger that created TikTok as we know it now, which would be a disaster for ByteDance. is moving all user data to US-based servers, but the CFIUS investigation has been going on for several years and shows the panel is struggling to find a way forward for TikTok. .

“The agreement under consideration by CFIUS will meaningfully address security concerns raised at both the federal and state levels,” said Oberwetter. “These plans have been developed under the oversight of our top national security agencies to further secure our platform in the United States, and the plans are being implemented and will continue to be implemented. I will continue to explain to the legislators.”

The focus on TikTok is a nice distraction for a US company that was once the object of congressional wrath and faced with its own calculations during this legislative session. It wasn’t included in the blanket bill that must be passed by Friday to avoid a government shutdown, but it did include several measures aimed at anti-competitive business practices and children’s safety and privacy online. It included some technology-related measures.