Facebook’s CEO Just Called out Rival TikTok Over This

Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, has called out competitor TikTok over censorship in China.

At Georgetown University on Thursday, Zuckerberg gave a speech on free speech and blasted ByteDance-owned TikTok for censoring content.

TikTok is a mobile app that lets users share and easily edit short videos.

“While our services like WhatsApp are used by protesters and activists everywhere due to strong encryption and privacy protections, on TikTok, the Chinese app growing quickly around the world, mentions of these protests are censored, even in the U.S.,” Zuckerberg said regarding the protests in Hong Kong. “Is that the internet we want?”

“Until recently, the internet in almost every country outside China has been defined by American platforms with strong free expression values,” Zuckerberg said. “There’s no guarantee these values will win out.”
TikTok has refuted Zuckerberg’s claims.

“The Chinese government does not request that TikTok censor content, and would not have jurisdiction regardless, as TikTok does not operate there,” a TikTok spokesperson told CNBC in response. “To be clear:
We do not remove videos based on the presence of Hong Kong protest content.”

TikTok does not operate in China but ByteDance has a nearly identical app called Douyin, which is only available in China. According to the Washington Post, the app is strictly censored and used as a vessel for propaganda by the ruling party. TikTok says its U.S. operation is entirely separate from the operations of its parent company in China.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ: FB) and have not been compensated for this article.