Reddit CEO Steve Huffman rips TikTok as ‘parasitic’ spyware

The CEO and co-founder of Reddit didn’t mince words Wednesday when he came out against popular social media platform TikTok.

“Maybe I’m going to regret this, but I can’t even get to that level of thinking with them,” Reddit boss Steve Huffman said during a tech panel discussion, TechCrunch reports. “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.”

The comments were made in front of a group of Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs gathered for a one-day conference called “Social 2030,” presented by Lightspeed Venture Partners and former Facebook vice president of product management Sam Lessin’s venture capital firm Slow Ventures.

Huffman is far from the first to raise privacy concerns about the controversial short video platform — the US Army banned soldiers from using the Chinese-owned app in December, citing security issues. The app, which is owned by tech startup ByteDance, also previously left users vulnerable to hackers.

“I actively tell people, ‘Don’t install that spyware on your phone,’ ” Huffman later added.

When contacted by The Post for comment, a spokesperson for TikTok said Huffman’s claims “are baseless accusations made without a shred of evidence.”

His comments came during a discussion about what Silicon Valley startups could learn from TikTok, with power players gathered to discuss identity trends in social apps.

In addition to security issues, TikTok has spawned numerous safety concerns due to its users’ dangerous “challenges.” The app has also been accused of suppressing physically disabled users’ videos.

Still, TikTok — previously called “Musical.ly” — remains massively popular, with some teens even getting rich from posting videos.