TikTok’s parent company has an extensive, well-documented history of cooperation with China’s security state, including the bureaus responsible for the Uyghur genocide. TikTok, as it happens, is also rapidly displacing Google as the premier option for Internet searches among Gen Z.
A senior Google executive, Prabhakar Raghavan, explained the search trend during an appearance at a Fortune magazine conference earlier this month. “In our studies, something like almost 40 percent of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram,” he said.
TikTok’s growing popularity suggests that there’s a good chance this number could grow. What could go wrong?