Insider claims Tiktok has a secret back door

There's another storm around the world's most popular app and this time it's centred around Yintao Yu, a former engineer at parent company Byte Dance who has acted as a whistleblower. His allegationsagainst Tiktok are nasty to say the least and include claims that Tiktok has a secret backdoor that the Chinese Communist Party can freely use to access user data.

Yu also claims that Tiktok frequently stole content from its two closest competitors Snapchat and Instagram, and that their primary purpose (for those who doubted) is to promote Chinese interests. Furthermore, the Communist Party allegedly had a special department at Byte Dance whose primary role was to monitor and ensure that the company was doing its utmost to spread core communist values.

The future of Tiktok is uncertain in many places around the world, not least in the US, where new laws are being passed that would allow the government to ban the app from being used within its borders.

What are your views on Tiktok and the claims that it is a tool for propaganda and information gathering?