Oracle to audit TikTok algorithms

Oracle has begun reviewing TikTok’s content algorithms and moderation models for potential manipulation by Chinese authorities. Axios.

According to the report, Oracle wants to ensure that the content shown on TikTok “meets users’ expectations”, and that the recommendation algorithms are not subjected to manipulation. The service will also regularly audit its moderation methods, including automated and manual systems.

TikTok confirmed the Axios report.

Content moderation on the platform has been contentious for several years. In 2019, The Washington Post сообщила that the Beijing office often instructed American staff to restrict certain videos.

In the same year The Guardian опубликовала a portion of ByteDance’s internal documents. According to them, Beijing required moderators to censor videos mentioning Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, the banned Falun Gong religious group, and other sensitive topics.

In 2020, The Intercept сообщил, that TikTok moderators were ordered to censor political speeches in live streams. They were also required to block posts by “undesirable users” — unattractive, poor, or people with disabilities.

ByteDance denied all accusations and said that American moderators did not receive such instructions.

However, a BuzzFeed News investigation from June 2022 доказало a close link between TikTok and Beijing authorities. Journalists found that U.S. citizen data had repeatedly been accessed by staff in China.

Following that TikTok объявил that it would move all traffic to the United States to Oracle’s cloud infrastructure. According to the company, this would protect American users’ data from prying eyes.

Earlier, the Trump administration пыталась to force ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company. Otherwise, the platform could be blocked in the United States.

ByteDance согласилась to sell the American part of the business to Oracle. The companies had preliminarily agreed on the terms of the deal, but in February 2021 it fell through.

Earlier, in July 2020, the hacker group Anonymous accused TikTok of mass surveillance of users and handing data to Chinese authorities.

Subscribe to ForkLog’s Telegram news: ForkLog AI — all the news from the world of AI!