Internal meetings: TikTok employed a two-tiered moderation system with “more lenient” treatment for influencers, celebrities, and other VIPs with 5M+ followers (Emily Baker-White/Forbes)

Emily Baker-White / Forbes:
Web novel apps backed by ByteDance and Tencent are running hundreds of Facebook and Instagram ads showing sexual assault, violent erotica, and acts of self-harm  —  Some of the ads include descriptions of sexual violence, paired with images of battered women and photos of male fitness influencers, which were used without permission.

Emily Baker-White / Forbes:
Sources: ByteDance launched audits into TikTok’s global CSO Roland Cloutier before he quit, hamstringing his efforts to build a robust security team  —  Roland Cloutier, a U.S. Air Force veteran and former law enforcement officer, stepped down as TikTok’s Global Chief Security Officer …

Emily Baker-White / Forbes:
Docs: a China-based ByteDance audit team planned to collect TikTok location data of US citizens who had never had an employment relationship with the company  —  The project, assigned to a Beijing-led team, would have involved accessing location data from some U.S. users’ devices without their knowledge or consent.

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Sources: Twitter has begun reinstating ~62K accounts with more than 10K followers after Musk’s poll on general amnesty; one of those accounts has 5M+ followers  —  They’re skeptical of their workers, too.  PLUS: New details on Musk’s ‘general amnesty’ for banned Twitter users  —  and Zoë Schiffer

Washington Post:
Internal note: Twitter has temporarily disabled sign-ups for Twitter Blue to “help address impersonation issues” affecting brands, politicians, and celebrities  —  Twitter accounts impersonating celebrities and politicians spread on the site after the company rolled out paid check marks.

Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes:
An investigation shows how self-publishing platform Wattpad’s lack of moderation, age verification, and safety features helps sexual predators exploit teens  —  For many teenagers, the reading and writing platform is a creative and educational outlet.  But a Forbes investigation found …