MYTH: TikTok's parent company, ByteDance Ltd., is Chinese owned.

FACT: TikTok’s parent company ByteDance Ltd. was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs, but today, roughly sixty percent of the company is beneficially owned by global institutional investors such as Carlyle Group, General Atlantic, and Susquehanna International Group. An additional twenty percent of the company is owned by ByteDance employees around the world, including thousands of employees in Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan. The remaining twenty percent is owned by the company's founder, who is a private individual and is not part of any state or government entity.

MYTH: TikTok and ByteDance are headquartered in China.

FACT: TikTok, which is not available in mainland China, has established Los Angeles and Singapore as headquarters locations to meet its business needs. That is in keeping with ByteDance's approach to aligning business needs to the markets where its services operate. ByteDance does not have a single global headquarters.

MYTH: There is a member of the Chinese government on ByteDance's board of directors.

FACT: This is not accurate. ByteDance's board of directors is comprised of five individuals, none of whom is a part of any government or state entity. The board includes:

  • Rubo Liang, ByteDance Chairman and CEO (Singapore-based)
  • Neil Shen, Sequoia (Hong Kong-based)
  • Arthur Dantchik, Susquehanna International Group (U.S.-based)
  • Bill Ford, General Atlantic (U.S.-based)
  • Philippe Laffont, Coatue Management (U.S.-based)

Four out of five of the board's directors represent ByteDance's investors on the board, and Rubo Liang, ByteDance CEO, represents the company and its employees.

MYTH: Decisions about TikTok are made in Beijing.

FACT: This is not true. TikTok's CEO Shou Chew is a third-generation Singaporean who is based in Singapore; Mr. Chew oversees all key day-to-day and strategic decision making when it comes to TikTok. TikTok's senior leadership team is based in Singapore, the United States, and Ireland.

As would be expected with any subsidiary of a holding company, high level decisions around financial matters and corporate governance are made in concert with the ByteDance board and CEO. None of those individuals reside in mainland China. Four out five members of that board are US- and Hong Kong-based, and represent the interests of ByteDance's global investors. The fifth member of the board is the ByteDance CEO, who resides in Singapore.

MYTH: TikTok manipulates content in a way that benefits the Chinese government or harms user interests.

FACT: TikTok is an entertainment app. The content on TikTok is generated by our community. TikTok does not permit any government to influence or change its recommendation model. Users can find a variety of content and views expressed about certain political issues or events, including those which are critical of the Chinese Government and its official positions.

MYTH: ByteDance censors TikTok content on behalf of the CCP or Chinese government.

FACT: There are no TikTok content moderators in China. Content moderation on TikTok is overseen by our U.S. and Ireland-led Trust and Safety team. All content is moderated based only on our publicly available Community Guidelines, which are also developed by our Trust and Safety team. Regardless of how content is flagged to TikTok—via formal or informal government request, by our automated systems at time of upload, or from community reports—no content is removed without going through our established moderation processes. TikTok does not remove content on behalf of any government except in compliance with legal process for content that violates local law. TikTok does not operate in mainland China.

MYTH: TikTok gathers as much data as possible, and the company takes a lax approach to the security of that data.

FACT: The TikTok app is not unique in the amount of information it collects. In line with industry practices, we collect information that users choose to provide to us and information that helps the app function, operate securely, and improve the user experience.

Myth: Under its 2017 National Intelligence law, the Chinese government can compel ByteDance to share Philippine TikTok user data.

Fact: Philippine TikTok user data is stored in Singapore, Malaysia, and the US and subject to local laws. TikTok does not store user data in China, has not shared Philippine user data with the Chinese government, and would not even if asked.

Myth: TikTok stores Philippine user data in China, where Chinese nationals, have access to it.

Fact: TikTok does not store Philippine user data in China. Like many global technology companies, TikTok has product development and engineering teams all over the world – including in the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Ireland - all collaborating to deliver the best product experience for our community of users. Importantly, user data is stored in Singapore, Malaysia and U.S., and strict protocols govern its access by employees, no matter where they are based.

Myth: TikTok gathers as much data as possible, and the company takes a lax approach to the security of that data.

Fact: The TikTok app is not unique in the amount of information it collects. In line with industry practices, we collect information that users choose to provide to us and information that helps the app function, operate securely, and improve the user experience.

We employ a series of robust controls, safeguards like encryption, and authorization approval protocols to help ensure that data is only accessed by those that need it to allow our business and our service to function.

This means that if an employee were required to access user data to perform a function specifically tied to their role (such as debugging, troubleshooting, and performance monitoring to provide an optimal user experience), logged and limited access to that data would only be granted subject to strict controls and safeguards, and adherence to the highest of approval protocols.

MYTH: TikTok collects a significant amount of sensitive data on its users.

Fact: TikTok's privacy policy details the data the company collects. We collect information to help the app function, operate securely, and improve the user experience.