TikTok

Like YouTube but videos have a duration from fifteen seconds to three minutes. The company is filled with "former" CIA spooks

 https://www.tiktok.com/  
Started: September 2016
Founders: Bytedance, China

Owner: ByteDance
Staff: 10000
Constitutes: social media

Main focus: Platformization

TikTok is a social media app. It is an immensely influential medium shaping how the world understands itself, particularly for younger generations. A 2021 study found that 31% of people aged between 18 and 24 worldwide had used the app in the past week, with 9% using it as a primary source of news.. The company is filled to the brim with "former" spooks from the CIA and other agencies.

TikTok's connections to China have always made the viral video app suspect, but now there is concrete evidence that that Beijing is actively accessing US user data. In this episode of China Uncensored, we talk about how Beijing is able to do that, how Presidents Trump and Biden responded to the national security implications of China's involvement in the company, and what TikTok says about its connection to China. - China Uncensored - June 2022

Sponsors

• Black Lives Matter/Corporate support: https://archive.is/bt2vy

COVID

The UK used TikTok influencers to urge teenagers to get the Pfizer vaccine.

Spooks

Alan Macleod pointed out that since 2020, there "has been a wave of former spooks, spies and mandarins appointed to influential positions within TikTok, particularly around content and policy – some of whom, on paper at least, appear unqualified for such roles."

Wile simultaneously being the Content Policy Lead for TikTok Canada, Alexander Corbeil is also the vice president of the NATO Association of Canada, a NATO-funded organization chaired by former Canadian Minister of Defense David Collenette. In order to join TikTok, Corbeil left his job at the SecDev Foundation, a US State Department-funded security think tank. Corbeil’s work focused on Middle Eastern security and in particular on the war in Syria and what NATO’s role should be.

Another NATO-linked new recruit is Ayse Koçak, a Global Product Policy manager at the company. Before joining TikTok last year, she spent three years at NATO. Like Corbeil, Koçak had special expertise in Middle Eastern politics, including a year’s tour in Iraq as the organization’s deputy senior civilian representative.

Foard Copeland, who works on TikTok’s trust and safety policy, is also an ex-NATO man. Copeland previously worked as a desk officer for NATO, as well as for the Department of Defense. Between 2011 and 2021, he also worked for the CIA front Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI), spending much of that time in Afghanistan.

Greg Andersen's CV mentioning “psychological operations” was removed after this tweet put focus on it.

It Feature Policy Manager is Greg Andersen. According to his own LinkedIn profile, until 2019, Andersen worked on “psychological operations” for NATO. This fact was removed after his tweet raising concerns about the relationship between big tech and the national security state went viral.

The Global Lead on Trust & Safety at TikTok, Chris Roberts, is a former Senior Director of Technology Policy at the Albright Stonebridge Group. Before ASG, Roberts worked on “special projects” for the CIA front National Democratic Institute (NDI).

Since January 2022, Beau Patteson has been working as a threat analyst for TikTok’s Trust and Safety Division. Between 2017 and 2020 Patteson was a targeting analyst for the CIA, after which he joined the State Department to become a foreign service officer. In addition to his role at TikTok, Patteson is also, according to his social media profile, a military intelligence officer in the United States Army.

Victoria McCullough works on trust and safety at TikTok. She previously worked for the Department of Homeland Security and for the White House.

TikTok staff member Christian Cardona spent nearly 13 years in senior roles at the State Department across the Middle East and Europe before seamlessly moving to the social media giant.

Alex S., the company’s former trust and safety/global content integrity policy lead, was previously a leadership analyst at CIA headquarters in Langley, VA, for almost nine years. Before the agency, she worked for the State Department and U.S. Pacific Command.

Casey Getz spent nearly 11 years at the CIA, rising to become branch chief, before later being hired by TikTok to work on data security and security integration. He was also previously a director for cybersecurity at the National Security Council at the White House.

Before becoming the company’s trust and safety manager, Kathryn Grant spent more than three years working at the White House before moving to the National Security Council and then the Department of Energy.

TikTok crisis manager Jim Ammons wokred for more than 21 years as a unit chief in the FBI.

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