Tiktok Tracked Users Who Watched Gay Content & Put Them On A List

[RAMROD 117,019]

For at least a year, some employees at TikTok were able to find what they described internally as a list of users who watch gay content on the popular app, a collection of information that sparked worker complaints, according to former TikTok employees.  

TikTok doesn’t ask users to disclose their sexual orientation, but it cataloged videos users watched under topics such as LGBT, short for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, the former employees said. The collection of information, which could be viewed by some employees through a dashboard, included a set of affiliated users who watched those videos, and their ID numbers, they said.

Other topics in TikTok’s data set also included lists of users, but the former employees didn’t consider those topics to be sensitive. TikTok workers in the U.S., U.K. and Australia in 2020 and 2021 raised concerns about this practice to higher-level executives, saying they feared employees might share the data with outside parties, or that it could be used to blackmail users, according to some of the former TikTok employees. 

TikTok is in an unusual situation when it comes to its handling of user data. U.S. lawmakers critical of TikTok say they fear the Chinese government could force the app’s owner, Beijing-based ByteDance, to divulge information about its U.S. users. A spokeswoman for TikTok said TikTok hasn’t been asked, nor has it provided any U.S. user data to the Chinese government.

The spokeswoman for TikTok said the dashboard that employees used to access the data on watchers of gay content was deleted in the U.S. nearly a year ago. The spokeswoman said TikTok doesn’t identify potentially sensitive information such as sexual orientation or race of users based on what they watch. She also said TikTok doesn’t infer such information.

Internally, some employees had argued that the data was safe to collect, because it didn’t indicate whether users really were members of a particular group, some of the former employees of TikTok said. Other employees disagreed, saying that topics of videos a user watched was often enough to infer aspects of their identity, particularly for topics such as sexuality, the former employees said. Those employees described the data as a list of TikTok’s users who are gay.

The TikTok spokeswoman said that at the time, the company had protocols to ensure data was accessed only by authorized employees, including those in China. Now, she said, TikTok stores the data in its new U.S. subsidiary, and only approved employees in the unit have access to it.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-tracked-users-who-watched-gay-content-prompting-employee-complaints-5966a5f5

[AURAOFSHEISSE 6,517]

IM definitely not on it

[BLACKOUTbritney 22,369]

Russia and China when they take over the world and track gays through TikTok:

 

 

[RAYA.core 828]

 

 

[Flippy 14,252]

Do thirst traps count? I wonder

[ProfessionalClown 10,647]

I mean wouldn’t this kinda be part of the data collection to make the “for you” page stuff more catered to you? 

[SlowLoris 1,203]

So on a range of blue-haired they/thems flashing big old pride flags to hunky, Athletic thirst-trap straight dudes, I wonder what side of the spectrum this "gayness" data falls on mostly.  Then again, straight guys love making thirst traps for each other (ex. The red pill videos where they show themselves working out to impress other guys), so idk how you could ACCURATELY measure who's gay and who's not

[Helxig 45,336]

We been knew that TikTok is a tracking and data collecting app. But when you hear it broken down like this it hits home a bit more  

Who knows what the future holds tbh. With the power of TikTok and AI developing incredibly fast... we aren't going to recognise the world in two years

[Better Day 5,766]

This is why I deleted TikTok and my account with the intense data selling and especially selling it to the Chinese government. We definitely don’t need this and I encourage everyone to delete the app. 

[sillynate 6,170]

2 hours ago, Flippy said:

Do thirst traps count? I wonder

Also I’ve noticed that in the hetero meme community, pretending to be gay is like… a thing with them? (ex: kiss the homies when I see them) would the algorithm be able to distinguish them from us???

[badfaith 5,716]

4 hours ago, RAMROD said:

For at least a year, some employees at TikTok were able to find what they described internally as a list of users who watch gay content on the popular app, a collection of information that sparked worker complaints, according to former TikTok employees.  

TikTok doesn’t ask users to disclose their sexual orientation, but it cataloged videos users watched under topics such as LGBT, short for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, the former employees said. The collection of information, which could be viewed by some employees through a dashboard, included a set of affiliated users who watched those videos, and their ID numbers, they said.

Other topics in TikTok’s data set also included lists of users, but the former employees didn’t consider those topics to be sensitive. TikTok workers in the U.S., U.K. and Australia in 2020 and 2021 raised concerns about this practice to higher-level executives, saying they feared employees might share the data with outside parties, or that it could be used to blackmail users, according to some of the former TikTok employees. 

TikTok is in an unusual situation when it comes to its handling of user data. U.S. lawmakers critical of TikTok say they fear the Chinese government could force the app’s owner, Beijing-based ByteDance, to divulge information about its U.S. users. A spokeswoman for TikTok said TikTok hasn’t been asked, nor has it provided any U.S. user data to the Chinese government.

The spokeswoman for TikTok said the dashboard that employees used to access the data on watchers of gay content was deleted in the U.S. nearly a year ago. The spokeswoman said TikTok doesn’t identify potentially sensitive information such as sexual orientation or race of users based on what they watch. She also said TikTok doesn’t infer such information.

Internally, some employees had argued that the data was safe to collect, because it didn’t indicate whether users really were members of a particular group, some of the former employees of TikTok said. Other employees disagreed, saying that topics of videos a user watched was often enough to infer aspects of their identity, particularly for topics such as sexuality, the former employees said. Those employees described the data as a list of TikTok’s users who are gay.

The TikTok spokeswoman said that at the time, the company had protocols to ensure data was accessed only by authorized employees, including those in China. Now, she said, TikTok stores the data in its new U.S. subsidiary, and only approved employees in the unit have access to it.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-tracked-users-who-watched-gay-content-prompting-employee-complaints-5966a5f5

My main and alt account being there despite me keeping the gay away from the main  the heart (or head) wants what it wants

[badfaith 5,716]

1 hour ago, sillynate said:

Also I’ve noticed that in the hetero meme community, pretending to be gay is like… a thing with them? (ex: kiss the homies when I see them) would the algorithm be able to distinguish them from us???

I recently stumbled on a guy who has an of that caters to the gays and he honestly looks so uncomfortable, like if that's the case he should've just stuck with women, gays will watch it regardless lmfao

[VTV 13,897]

what's with their obsession with the gheys 

[Tinnitus15 51,886]

TikTok watching @Kimmo’s “sexy armpit guys” TikTok history 

[Chromatislaps 34,854]

4 hours ago, VTV said:

what's with their obsession with the gheys 

the CCP sees us as undesirable.