Tiktok deletes how-tos and tutorials
The need for IT security experts is growing worldwide. Nevertheless, social media platforms delete content that provides knowledge in this area. Tiktok is said to be particularly aggressive in hacking Tiktoks.
Social media channels are popular sources of information, especially among younger users. So does Tiktok. Not only can one learn here how to properly seed a peach, but also how to hack into a website. “It looks like we have a match for admin access,” says Serena DiPenti in a tiktok. Under the alias shenetworks, DiPenti regularly shares how-tos on the subject of hacking with its audience on the platform. DiPenti demonstrates a tool called Hydra, which is used to crack passwords. The website shown in the video is not a real target. DiPenti uses TryHackMe, a service that allows you to try out and expand your own hacking skills in a controlled environment.
However, that didn’t stop Tiktok from removing the video. The reason: the platform’s harrassment and bullying policy. Another clip by DiPentis also had to believe in it – despite the explicit reference that it was an instructional video. DiPenti even negotiated a temporary account ban.
If you want to protect yourself from hacking attacks, or perhaps even want to work as a professional penetration tester, you have to understand how hackers work. Know their techniques, understand how they think. Content like DiPentis is for social media users: inside, entertaining, entertaining and introduces the topic without being overwhelming.
“If you are not aware of potential security threats, you have no way of protecting yourself,” DiPenti told Motherboard. “Security experts put time and effort into creating these Tiktoks – if they expect everything to be removed immediately, they’ll stop at some point.”
Other accounts face the same problem. Jonathan Boring, another cybersecurity creator, described how he protects his content by censoring himself: he avoids terms like “hack”, “hacking”, “hacker” or the names of dedicated hacking tools in his tiktoks. Videos that have anything to do with cybersecurity or hacking would almost always be deleted. Often they would be restored, but only if their authors object to the deletion. Those whose Tiktoks are too often classified as a violation of the community guidelines also run the risk of being banned. It could take more than 48 hours for an objection to be processed, Boring told Motherboard.
A: e spokesman: in Tiktoks said Motherboard, the platform’s policy does not allow criminal content or harassment, but there are exceptions for content with educational requirements. A video that DiPentis sent motherboard Tiktok as an example was apparently restored as a result. Tiktok apparently announced that it had been mistakenly removed. A day later it was removed again.
Other platforms regularly pose the same problem to their users. Only in May, for example, based on its community guidelines, YouTube deleted a video that shows how a known security gap in the Luca contact tracking app could be exploited.
