TikTok: it's the social media app which has come to define our perception of Gen Z, and which has firmly embedded itself | dG1femNYTnZaYnowZjA
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00:00TikTok has very much become a way for the young generation to express ourselves in every way.
00:12You can be yourself. You're at home, you're filming, and there's always going to be like
00:16millions of people watching you. You never know when you can blow up.
00:22I think every young kid's dream is to be successful online.
00:31The Chinese social media platform TikTok has changed the internet.
00:36It's become the most popular app in the world.
00:40There's fishing videos, there's cooking, can make skits, singing, dancing, literally everything you can think of.
00:45TikTok has.
00:46It's not an app on their phone anymore. It's their livelihood. It's how they communicate with
00:54their friends. It's how they see their world. That's a part that I don't think everybody has
00:59adjusted to yet.
01:02We're really at risk of having generations of young people that have formed identities in
01:08response to something that a technology platform prescribes to be the new normal.
01:13Behind the shiny dance videos, the platform is leading people down dangerous paths.
01:21I'd like to think that I wouldn't have struggled with an aiding disorder if I hadn't downloaded TikTok.
01:27My claim with TikTok is that they are harvesting huge amounts of data illegally without the consent
01:33of children or their parents.
01:36If you just look at TikTok in isolation, it seems innocuous.
01:39But it really takes place in this much larger context of data collection, artificial intelligence,
01:45and a real effort by the Chinese to consolidate influence in the region and across the globe.
01:51Tonight on Four Corners, TikTok.
01:54In a joint investigation with Hack on Triple J, we're going down the rabbit hole to reveal the dark
01:59side of the app.
02:00How the platform censors political content and harvests children's data.
02:05And how the app's powerful algorithm exposes people to misinformation and dangerous content.
02:21Available now on Video On Demand.