TikTok has quietly altered its law enforcement guidelines to seemingly fit President Donald Trump’s vision of a country free from “illegal aliens.”
The short-form video platform TikTok has silently altered its law enforcement guidelines, adding that “regulatory authorities” will also be able to submit data requests from the platform.
Regulatory authorities are government bodies responsible for enforcing laws in their specific jurisdiction.
In the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) are all examples of regulatory authorities.
Other authorities making headlines for their social media campaigns and arguably brutal approach to enforcement are the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
TikTok’s amendment to its law enforcement guidelines now allows agencies, like ICE and the DHS, to file legal requests for information, presumably regarding immigrants.
However, TikTok has said that only “valid legal requests” will be considered, and still, authorities would need to jump through hoops to get TikTok to hand over its data.
The platform has now supposedly loosened its rules surrounding user notification when data is handed over, meaning that TikTok users might not know if a regulatory agency, like ICE or the DHS, has access to their data.
Law enforcement and government agencies can request the following information:
- TikTok usernames
- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
- IP addresses (at account creation)
- Account creation date
- Device information
- IP address of account login/logouts
- IP address logs for interactions
- Video creation date and time
- Video content
- Comments
- Direct message content
- Payment information
- Gift card information
Some of this information could be deemed sensitive, including IP addresses, phone numbers, device information, and direct message content.
While an IP address doesn’t give away your exact location, it can give government agencies like ICE and the DHS a rough idea of where a person is.
This means that if users are posting to TikTok about ICE and its seemingly anti-immigration agenda, then these agencies could track you down a lot faster than you think.
Now that TikTok has made its notification process more lax, users might not even know that they’re being tailed by authorities.
However, whether agencies like ICE or the DHS have initiated any requests yet is unknown.
Hackers get their own back on ICE and DHS
Previously, Cybernews reported that hackers took matters into their own hands and doxxed hundreds of ICE and DHS agents.
The mass doxxing was a result of anti-ICE sentiment, which erupted in the United States following the poor treatment and mass deportations of immigrants in America.
Hundreds of employees from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) were doxxed in a massive coordinated hack, according to a report from 404 Media.
This came as the Trump administration renewed its crackdown on protests and immigration, with masked DHS and ICE agents detaining people across major cities in the United States in what critics have described as state-sanctioned kidnappings.
Unlock more exclusive Cybernews content on YouTube.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are markedmarked