The term "parasite" has been in recent times associated with a critically-acclaimed foreign film that made history by winning "Best Picture" at the 2020 Oscars a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, that's not the case for how the word was used by Reddit CEO Steve Huffman recently when he expressed his feelings about the wildly-popular social media app TikTok.
While speaking on a panel called Social 2030 in front of a large group of Silicon Valley investors, Huffman responded to TikTok possibly being a platform that they could learn from by saying, "Maybe I’m going to regret this, but I can’t even get to that level of thinking with them." He went on to add, "Because I look at that app as so fundamentally parasitic, that it’s always listening, the fingerprinting technology they use is truly terrifying, and I could not bring myself to install an app like that on my phone." Huffman added an extra two cents to his harsh opinion by saying, "I actively tell people, 'Don't install that spyware on your phone.'" A spokesperson for TikTok responded to his accusations, telling TechCruch exclusively, “These are baseless accusations made without a shred of evidence."
Even though Reddit and TikTok are in no way competing, could Steve Huffman be simply hating on the popularity of TikTok or does he have a point worth paying attention to? Sound off with your thoughts down below in the comments after checking out Megan Thee Stallion's hilarious #RideOrDieChallenge TikTok compilation video: