Our guest is: Jakub OLEK - Head of Public Policy and Government Relations, TikTok Central and Eastern Europe

Jakub is a government relations and market access expert with a law degree and international experience gained in Europe, Africa, Asia and Middle East. Previously he was working for Lime and Santander.

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IMPORTANT: The discussion you are watching was conducted before the TikTok CEO's hearing in the US Congress. So treat this podcast as such.

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TALKING POINTS:

___ In the advertising platform we can target between 7 and 8 million accounts in Romania. What other official figures and data can give us an idea of how big TikTok actually is? How strong is TikTok today in Romania, and how is Romania on the EU map from the perspective of TikTok - without any unnecessary formality?

___ A former TikTok employee recently testified before the US Congress that the app is connected to another ByteDance app, Toutiao, and that this leads to the transfer of data from US and EU citizens to China. What is the company's official defense on this subject?

___ TikTok employees have used data they had internal access to in order to find details about BuzzFeed and Financial Times journalists. The story has been amplified in the media and eventually we found out that TikTok itself was also a victim, as those employees had infiltrated the company - at least that's the official story. How safe can a platform like TikTok be under these conditions? It is possible?

___Probably few people know that besides TikTok, ByteDance operates many other products, especially in China and Asia, and it's somewhat normal to use common technology - however, your official discourse seems to support the opposite. How independent is TikTok from Douyin and your other applications, actually?

___ One of the systemic problems of global players is that they do not allow us to verify the data through independent, third-party tools. Local industry is not believed by any agency or client when it claims that a site has a certain level of traffic. This is measured independently, as done by the BRAT organization, of which I happen to be the president in Romania. Why does TikTok not do this? Why should we believe you when you report on views, clicks, etc.?

___ Facebook has done a terrible job in the fight against fake news, rather amplifying the algorithmic lie than limiting it, and Google hasn't had too much to comment as a good portion of the traffic that came out of Facebook also helped increase Google's revenue through tools like the Google Display Network. How is TikTok preventing itself from being the next propagator of fake news?

___ How does TikTok protect users' personal information and prevent it from being accessed by unauthorized parties? How can we know that the Chinese government or other governments are not asking for – and receiving – data from you?

___ How does TikTok handle reports of cyberbullying or harassment on the platform, and what steps are taken to ensure the safety of its users? What should people know about this? How much is AI how much is done by actual people?

___ How does TikTok ensure compliance with GDPR regulations, especially given its large user base in Europe? Is this feasible? By the way, how many users does TikTok have in EU countries?

___ Can you explain how TikTok's algorithm works and how it ensures fairness and transparency for all users?

___ Can you explain how TikTok's data collection practices differ from those of other social media platforms, if at all? What data do you collect?

___ What is the key message you would like to reach the authorities in Romania and EU and what is the message that needs to reach the public?

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