In an interview with Yle, the security police warned that leaking Tiktok user data to the Chinese security authorities is possible.
Multi the MP plans to stay on the Chinese video app Tiktok despite a warning from the protection police (Supo). STT asked a few MPs who use Tiktok how they feel about Supo's views.
With the MP and chairman of the Greens Sofia Virtra in addition to his work phone and personal phone, he has a third phone with which he uses Tiktok. The reason for this is Tiktok's data security problems.
“Very often I would like to stop using Tiktok just as a statement, because I feel that it has a lot of disadvantages as a platform. These include its connection to China, but also how the application is known to be exceptionally addictive for children and young people, and how the content served to them by the algorithms is by no means always good. Vice versa.”
Supo warned on Tuesday Mightily in the interview that he considers it possible that Tiktok's user data is leaked to the Chinese security authorities. Therefore, Supo does not recommend its own employees to install Tiktok on their work or personal phones.
According to Virra, there is nothing surprising in Supo's views, as Tiktok's problems have been known before.
The coalition Aura Sallathe former social relations director of Tiktok competitor Meta, commented last weekthat Tiktok should be banned in the EU as a security threat.
Virta is also of the opinion that Tiktok should be banned at the European level. He thinks it is important to talk and communicate with young people, but he needs safer platforms for that. In addition, according to Virra, parents and other citizens should have more support for using and understanding social media.
“For now, however, I feel it is important to be on Tiktok in terms of democracy. If only some politicians leave Tiktok, there is a risk that, for example, the political content that young people encounter there will remain very one-sided.”
Virta reaches a lot of Tiktok users, as she has almost 119,000 followers. He emphasizes responsibility, because even 12-year-olds watch the videos.
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“Everyone is responsible for their own use of social media” – Mauri Peltokangas (ps)
Particularly active users of Tiktok have been the Finnish parliamentarians. Sebastian Tynkkyne has 135,000 followers, and the diligent Tiktok communication of basic Finns has been considered one of the factors that led to the party's success in the previous parliamentary elections. STT did not reach Tynkki for an interview.
Mauri Peltokangas (ps) says that Supo's comments are important to consider when evaluating Tiktok's data security. He himself has almost 10,000 followers, but Facebook and Instagram are more important social media channels for him.
“I have been using Tiktok as an experiment.”
Although some of the parliamentary group of basic Finns are very active on social media, according to Peltokanka, the group has not drawn up policies or given instructions for the use of Tiktok.
“Everyone is responsible for their own use of social media.”
Sdp's Congressman Ville Merinen is known for his mental health-related content, which he publishes on Tiktok to his nearly 136,000 followers.
Merinen commented on Tuesday on Instagram Supo's warnings in his published video.
“It seems that it [Tiktok] gather information about us, and know what to do with that information.”
However, he emphasized that young people will watch Tiktok as long as it is available. According to Merinen, she would feel that she would abandon the young people if she herself left the app.
“Yes, it should be banned. But as long as it's not banned, I feel it's worth making content there,” he said in his video.
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“The issue of data security is not limited to Tiktok”, Minja Koskela (left)
The Left Alliance Minja Koskela says that you don't use Tiktok on your work phone but on a separate phone. Among social media channels, Koskela uses Instagram the most, and Tiktok is not particularly central to him as a channel. Koskela has around 5,700 followers on Tiktok.
“However, I understand the need for politicians to use it, because young people made voting decisions in the parliamentary elections based on Tiktok.”
Koskela says that he only shares content related to politics on Tiktok. Private life is not shown on the social channel.
According to Koskela, it is important to have a social discussion about the power of social media giants and the data security of social media.
“The issue of data security is not limited to Tiktok.”
Noora Fagerström (kok), on the other hand, says that he hasn't made any Tiktok updates since August, but still goes there sometimes. According to Fagerström, there has been a lot of talk about Tiktok's data security in the parliamentary group of the coalition.
“There have been no official instructions, but people have been asked to use their own judgment.”
Fagerström says that he too has thought about Tiktok's security. However, Tiktok is a good channel for increasing visibility. Fagerström himself has around 3,300 followers.
“It's obviously addictive.”
Chinese the data collection of the application owned by the technology company Bytedance has already raised concerns in several Western countries.
The cyber threat inte
lligence manager of the information security company F-Secure Laura Kankaalan According to Tiktok, it can “frighteningly accurately” profile users based on the information it collects.
In this way, the application can show the user content that will make them continue browsing or upload their videos to Tiktok. For some this may mean cooking videos, for others video game related content.
“The danger is that addictive videos will be joined by videos that have an unjustified negative impact on our perception of the world or other people. The issue is complicated by the lack of transparency in how the social platform's algorithm profiles and selects content for its users,” says Kankaala, reached by email.
According to Kankaala, it is difficult for an outsider to say which social platform collects the most data on its users. However, Kankaala considers how the collected information is used to be more important.
“Tiktok uses the information it collects to target us with content, and this content is definitely not always harmless. Conspiracy theories, life-threatening challenges that young people try out and, of course, political opinion influencing have also spread through other social media platforms over the years,” says Kankaala.
“In practice, Tiktok decides with the help of algorithms what kind of content producers get into the limelight, which of course encourages other content producers to do the same to get Views.”
“I think it is important to take seriously the risk that Tiktok is misused, for example in a political sense. It is good to remember that technology is not always neutral.”
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