Zach Gibson/Getty Images Reddit CEO Steve Huffman.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said TikTok is “fundamentally parasitic” at a panel discussion on Wednesday.

He actively tells people not to install the app and calls it “spyware,” he said.

The US government is scrutinizing TikTok’s handling of user data, and many government agencies have barred their staff from using it because of its Chinese roots.

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The CEO of Reddit slammed TikTok, the short-form-video app that has taken Generation Z by storm, at an event on Wednesday.

TikTok is the newest big challenge to big American social-media companies like Facebook, and it’s owned by the Chinese tech firm ByteDance. According to TechCrunch, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman disputed the idea that Silicon Valley could learn anything from TikTok.

“Maybe I’m going to regret this, but I can’t even get to that level of thinking with them,” Huffman said. “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.”

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

TikTok was not immediately available for comment on Huffman’s remarks. In an October blog post, it said it stored US user data from TikTok in the US.

TikTok’s handling of user data has come under close investigation from the US government, and multiple government agencies have barred staff from using the app on the grounds that it could be feeding data back to the Chinese government.

A California student filed a class-action lawsuit against the company last year, alleging that the app made an account for her without her permission and started collecting her data.

Huffman was speaking at a panel discussion called Social 2030 and shared the stage with former Facebook policy chief Elliot Schrage and Sam Lessin, Facebook’s former vice president of product.

Huffman is one of the few voices in Silicon Valley that has condemned TikTok in such strong terms. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said last month that he believed TikTok could overtake Instagram because it is driven by users displaying their “talent” – like learning choreographed dances – rather than social posturing.

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