TikTok is not sending data to the Chinese government, transparency report says

The U.S. government has been cautious towards TikTok in recent months, worried that the company will provide the Chinese government with user data. To prove its innocence, TikTok has released its first transparency report.

In the report, it was proven that China has not requested for user data in the first half of 2019. In fact, the majority of the user data requests came from India, the U.S., and Japan. India had 107 requests to 143 accounts, the U.S. had 79 requests to 255 accounts and Japan had 35 requests to 39 accounts. 

“In addition to legal information requests, government bodies sometimes request that we remove content they deem to be a violation of local laws. We review such requests closely and evaluate the specified content in accordance with our Community Guidelines and local laws,” said Eric Ebenstein, TikTok’s public policy chief in the press release. Even when it comes to removal or restriction of content, China was nowhere to be found on the list. India remains top of the list with 11 government requests to remove 9 accounts in which 8 accounts were removed/restricted and 4 content were removed/restricted.

However, this transparency report only covers the first half of 2019. The U.S. government will probably need that second transparency report from TikTok to reduce their skepticism.