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No, I have never used TikTok. I was serving in the US military when it became a thing, and we were explicitly banned from using it.
I worked in the IT field while serving, and we discovered that the app gave itself root access to your phone (full administrative privileges), prevented you from fully removing it once it was installed, and would then slowly copy all the data on your phone and send it to IP addresses in China. It was a massive security vulnerability, so all military members with security clearances were banned from using it.
As for other short-form videos, I block all YouTube Shorts and refuse to touch Facebook Reels. I actually have F.B. Purity on my computer, which allows me to remove certain types of content from my Facebook feed. I have no games, no marketplace, no reels, and no ads or suggested content. Just a feed of posts from my friends list and that's all.
I really should get rid of Facebook completely, but it's my one social media site that keeps me in touch with people I've known since childhood. If everyone I know moved to a better platform, I'd remove FB immediately. But for now, I just keep it for the easy contact with people.
It gains root access and transfers all of your data? Any source on that, other than "trust me"?
I agree with others that it's full of disinformation and can be used for propaganda, but getting root access to your phone (which usually disables a bunch of banking apps and others) seems like a stretch. Unless there's a different type of rooting going on?
I'm sure there's shady shit going on, but I'd really love to see a reputable report on it.
This was passed down in tech reports from our higher military organizations while I was serving, along with official orders to never use the app, since it's a huge security vulnerability.
I retired 2 years ago, so I no longer have access to those reports. However, here are a few things I was able to scrounge up on the civilian side of things:
https://www.androidcentral.com/tiktok-was-found-be-bypassing-androids-built-protections-and-sneakily-tracking-users
https://gizmodo.com.au/2022/07/tiktok-app-phone-access/
https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2022/10/tiktoks-secret-operation-tracks-you-even-if-you-dont-use-it
https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-data-privacy/