Popular social media app, TikTok has said that it is addressing a cyber-attack that singled out several well-known brands and celebrities.
The video-sharing app, owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, had told news men from the BBC that a “very limited” number of accounts had been jeopardised, adding that it was working with the targeted users to reinstate access to their accounts.
At the time of filing this report, TikTok had yet to share further details on the perpetrators of the cyber-attack, or how it was carried out.
One of the jeopardised accounts belonged to CNN.
Paris Hilton’s official TikTok account was also targeted, but luckily, it was not compromised.
The news of compromised accounts is coming as TikTok faces a major ban in the US — an ultimatum prevented only by the sale of its Chinese parent company.
The platform boasts of millions of users globally, but it has consistently come under fire over the security of users’ data and its links to the Chinese government in Beijing.
As it stands currently, TikTok is shaping up to act as an untested social media battleground for the U.S elections.
At the turn of the new month, Donald Trump opened an account on the controversial platform, regardless of the fact that it had sought to ban it during his tenure as the U.S president.
Since signing up on the app, Trump, has amassed over five million followers.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has been actively using the platform to campaign for a re-election in upcoming November elections but he seems to be an unpopular candidate in the app as he has only amassed about 350,000 followers; a measly figure when compared to Trump’s.
