Inside TikTok's Attempts To 'Downplay the China Association'

Leaked documents from within TikTok reveal how the company games out responses to tricky questions -- and highlight what the company thinks its biggest public perception problems are. Chief among them: China. From a report: The PR documents, which Gizmodo obtained from within the company, are titled "TikTok Master Messaging" and "TikTok Key Messages." Both are explanations of press talking points in English and include a version translated into a European language. The larger of the two, the 53-page TikTok Master Messaging document, outlines key messages the company wants to present to the public. The dossier's version history shows it was last updated in August 2021 but had been consistently altered since it was created in March 2020. Right near the top of the list? "Downplay the parent company ByteDance, downplay the China association, downplay AI." All three bullet points are the second, third and fourth lines of the document, second only to "Emphasise TikTok as a brand/platform." Further down, the company advises its employees to stress that, though young people love TikTok, "the app is only for users aged 13 and over." [...]The soundbites include: "There's a lot of misinformation about TikTok right now. The reality is that the TikTok app isn't even available in China." TikTok used this talking point when responding to the BBC."We have not and will not share user data with the Chinese government, and would not do so if asked." TikTok used this one in response to BuzzFeed News."We have a number of measures in place to significantly reduce access to user data, and we continue to build those out." TikTok published this talking point on its own blog.

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