Interview
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After the restriction of the video sharing application in several major instances, due to suspicions of espionage, the specialist Camille Brugier analyzes the data collection at work in China, a reason for concern for Westerners.
TikTok, a snitch in our pockets? The European Commission and Parliament, US federal agencies… One following the other, major institutions are banning their employees from using TikTok. Surveillance, propaganda… The application of short videos, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, arouses all suspicion. Between the myth of the invulnerable Big Brother and the real labeling of the population, Camille Brugier, specialist in the Chinese economy and trade, associate researcher at the Institute for Strategic Research of the Military School (Irsem), analyzes the springs of the collection data in China.
Does the Chinese Communist Party have control over the TikTok algorithm?
You should know that TikTok is the international version of a social network also belonging to ByteDance and reserved for China: Douyin. And on Douyin, we see a very strong commitment from the Chinese Communist Party [PCC, ndlr] which censors some of the content and spreads propaganda in it. The party is even established in its premises, like many other companies in China. The fear