Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – TikTok short video platform will likely launch a group chat messaging feature this year. This puts the Chinese-owned application in direct competition with social media such as Facebook.
This was disclosed by several sources with knowledge of the plan to Reuters, as quoted by CNBC Indonesia, Thursday (18/3/2021).
One of the sources said in an internal discussion the group chat feature should have been launched last year but it was postponed because this application had to deal with the United States government (US).
The function of this group chat feature is to keep users on the application longer. Unfortunately, the possibility of this feature will not be encrypted so that the threat of hackers to infiltrate is high.
It is currently evaluating when and where it will launch group chats on TikTok, the source said. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Previously, the Trump administration argued that TikTok posed a national security issue because the personal data of US users could be obtained by the Chinese government. TikTok, which has more than 100 million users in the United States, denies the allegations.
Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert who is on Tiktok US’s advisory board, said he had not been notified of this new feature being rolled out in the United States, but added the platform had to be prepared for the dangers that would come with its expansion into social messaging.
“If you are a site the size of TikTok or Facebook, even if it is not encrypted, you still have to worry about how I will moderate this material and deal with the downsides.”
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