HomeReportsTikTok: The Children’s Entertainment App That Became a Security Problem

TikTok: The Children’s Entertainment App That Became a Security Problem

Av Patrik Oksanen och Anna Rennéus Guthrie
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Publicerad 19 December, 2024

In just a few years, the Chinese social media platform TikTok has gained over a billion users. In this time, the app has challenged Western platform companies and stress-tested the security policies of democratic countries. A key concern raised by security experts is that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, operates out of China and is therefore bound by Chinese law, posing a serious security risk.

Today, TikTok is banned in the government offices, agencies, and political assemblies of a considerable number of countries. Members of the European Parliament are for example no longer allowed to use the app on their work devices, and similar restrictions have been introduced for government offices staff in Sweden. Despite the growing security concerns, however, TikTok remains one of the most popular communication tools among children and the youth, not least in Sweden.

This report is an updated, English version of the report “Tiktok: barnunderhållningen som blev ett säkerhetsproblem” published by Stockholm Free World Forum in 2023. Along with the original report, it features the recent development in TikTok-related security concerns as well as updated policy recommendations for the EU and Sweden.

Patrik Oksanen is resident senior fellow at Stockholm Free World Forum and responsible for CIDA. Patrik works as a freelance journalist and lecturer, and is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Military Sciences and the Royal Swedish Naval Society. He has extensive experience as a journalist, writer and opinion maker in security and defence. He was named the Opinion Writer of the Year 2017 by Dagens Opinion and the Journalist of the Year in 2018 by Dagens Media.

Anna Rennéus Guthrie is the Director of think tank Stockholm Free World Forum. For the last 15 years, she has worked as a journalist and opinion leader within politics and businessrelated issues. In recent years, she has participated more actively in the debate on foreign influence and raised concerns about the increasing targeting of the West by authoritarian states.