Features

The TikTok mobile app allows users to create a short video of themselves which often feature music in the
background, can be sped up, slowed down or edited with a filter.[30] To create a music video with the app, users can
choose background music from a wide variety of music genres, edit with a filter and record a 15-second video with
speed adjustments before uploading it to share with others on TikTok or other social platforms. [31]
The app's "react" feature allows users to film their reaction to a specific video, over which it is placed in a small
window that is movable around the screen.[32] Its "duet" feature allows users to film a video aside another video.[33]
The app allows users to set their accounts as "private". Such accounts' content remains visible to TikTok, but is
blocked from TikTok users who the account holder has not authorised to view their content.[34] Users can choose
whether any other user, or only their "friends", may interact with them through the app via comments, messages, or
"react" or "duet" videos.[32][34]

Artificial intelligence
TikTok employs artificial intelligence to analyse user’s interests and preferences through their interactions with the
content, and display a personalized content feed to each user. [35][36]

Reception
TikTok became the world's most downloaded app on Apple's App Store in the first half of 2018 with an estimated 104
million downloads, surpassing the downloads recorded by PUBG Mobile, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram in the
same period.[25]
The app has spawned numerous viral trends and internet celebrities around the world, propelled songs to fame, and
is known to be popular among celebrities due to its popularity and social influence.[37][38][39][40][41][42] The most well-known
viral TikTok meme in the Western world is "hit or miss", from a snippet of iLOVEFRiDAY's "Mia Khalifa" (2018), which
has been used in over four million TikTok videos, and helped introduce TikTok to a larger Western audience. [43] The
platform has received some criticism, however, for its lack of royalties towards artists whose music is used on their
platform.[43]

Privacy, cyberbullying and addiction concerns

Similar to other platforms,[44] Journalists in several countries have raised privacy concerns about the app, not least
because it is popular with children and may expose them to sexual predators.[44][45][46][47]
Several users have reported endemic cyberbullying on TikTok, [48][49] including racist abuse.[50]
Some users may find it hard to stop using TikTok.[51] In April 2018, an addiction-reduction feature was added to
Douyin.[51] This encourages users to take a break every 90 minutes.[51] Later in 2018, the feature was rolled out to the
TikTok app.

National security concerns

In January 2019, an investigation by the American think tank Peterson Institute for International Economics described
TikTok as a "Huawei-sized problem" that poses a national security threat to the West,[52][53][54] noting the app's
popularity with Western users including armed forces personnel, and its ability to convey location, image and
biometric data to its Chinese parent company, which is legally unable to refuse to share data to the Chinese
government.[53][54] TikTok’s parent company ByteDance told Bloomberg that TikTok is not available in China and its
data is stored outside of China.[55]

Censorship