I read that article and I still don't understand what it being a fluke would matter to anything? Strange title to me.

Great response. Definitely I want to continue the discussion.

And it's well beyond what any other social media app does plus unnecessary for the functionality of the app.

I'll need to rewatch this to remember the specifics, but this privacy YouTuber named Rob Braxman did a comparison of the permissions and terms from Tik Tok and other social media apps, and Tik Tok came out quite favourably: https://youtu.be/VIakTNOhNSE

Chinese government spying or interference in the algorithm is probably real, but it's still a far superior product at the end of the day, which tells you something about how bad the competition is. To compare Tik Tok to Instagram reels is completely absurd.