Harvard University Alumni

"The beauty of TikTok is that it is designed for everyone to be heard. If you have good content that resonates with people, they will see your video. It’s not only the users who are already famous who can grow their platform here—TikTok gives everyone a voice."

"You know that feeling when you haven’t been back in Singapore for a while? You touch down at our beautiful airport and then are hit by the humidity the minute you step out onto the street. That’s home."

"Every time I meet a user, I feel like the level of understanding and the conversations that we have are significantly different than with someone who’s never used it before. People who use it really understand."

"The Bhagavad Gītā comes to us from sacred India. Its verses of ancient wisdom on the mysteries of human existence speak to us today as if they had just been spoken. The Bhagavad Gītā is one of the most loved works among the collections of scriptural texts found within the Hindu traditions. It also stands out among the holy books of the major world religions, for its flowing Sanskrit verses present a uniquely vivid portrait of the intimacy between humanity and divinity. Indeed, this divine intimacy is revealed in the form of a dialogue that takes the soul on an inward journey culminating in the ultimate state of yoga, in which souls unite with the heart of God."

"But as a company that is growing, it is important to be a little bit more visible so that people can understand us better—and we can earn the trust that we need to."

"Clearly we prioritize safety very seriously, as you can imagine. And some of it could be us being overly protective, a mis-moderation leaning on the side of being careful. Sometimes we have taken something down as an abundance of caution. The position of moderation is very important. It’s not only getting the violation rates down, it’s reducing overmoderation, which happens. It’s a price you have to pay, and you have to find the right balance."

"I think the biggest gap in understanding is between users and nonusers. This is the biggest gap."

"Trust must be earned through action, not words. Building trust is above all an engineering and governance effort, not a public relations exercise."

"When it comes to protecting our community, we know there’s no finish line. The industry as a whole faces dynamic and ever-evolving challenges. We will always work to deploy our teams, tools, and resources to meet them and to demonstrate our hard work and transparency."

"Oh, who am I? I grew up in Singapore. I was born there, my great-grandfather moved there many years ago. I had a typical Singaporean childhood. I wanted to see the world, because Singapore is fantastic, but it’s tiny. So I went to the UK for college. I joined Goldman Sachs, worked there for a couple of years, met an internet entrepreneur who started an investment company to invest in Facebook. So I joined him, and through that I met the guy who founded ByteDance. And in his earliest iteration, the idea was so simple, but so powerful."

"People come to TikTok to feel inspired, be creative, and watch uplifting content. It is not the platform of choice for individuals seeking to engage in harmful conduct. However, we also realize that threats to online platform safety are far from static. Content moderation, which is a core element of platform safety, is an exceptionally complicated, dynamic, and constantly evolving process."

"Fans want to know how the music is made. They want to know about the thought process, the creative process. And this is the key thing. They don’t want this to be overproduced. They want this to be super authentic. And one of the key things that you will find on TikTok is that most of the content, everything I just told you about, has to be really authentic. If you try to make it very polished or very refined, it’s not going to be that organic. People will see through this."

"Safety and wellness—in particular for teens—is a core priority for TikTok. And as a father of two, these issues are personal for me. Today’s youth are growing up in a digital media world, and TikTok is eager to be part of the conversation about creating more robust protections."

"I consider myself native. I remember getting my first dialup internet connection. Remember that beep? I remember getting online for the first time. I remember that very clearly."

"TikTok has empowered millions of Americans to express their voices in their own authentic way and has provided a global stage for their creativity in a way that cannot be replicated on any other platform or in any other medium."

"I think as long as there have been rules, there have been people trying to bypass the rules. I think what is really important is to make sure that the spirit of what we’re trying to do is well understood, and the spirit is, “Look, we’re trying to create a platform for creativity and for joy.”"

"On TikTok, we aim to provide three things. The first is a window to discover. This window, the For You feed, opens to a stream of videos curated to your interests, making it easy to find content and creators you love. The second is a canvas to create. Whether it’s demonstrating a new science experiment or the latest cooking trend, people around the world use TikTok to unleash creativity. The third is a bridge to connect. Through TikTok, people have discovered new communities, cultures, and interests."

"The overarching thing that we’re trying to do here is to keep the community safe and inclusive for everybody. There’s always freedom for users to express themselves if it doesn’t violate any of our guidelines. As you can imagine, this is a very complex role, and our trust and safety team is always looking into making sure that the content on the platform is not violative."

"“For me it was big dreams, and I didn’t have a good present but I could dream about making my future better. So (it was) seeing what was possible, not just what is, and getting help to do that. So (it could be) sharing your dreams with other people and asking for help and advice and getting support for that to maybe reshape your dream, depending on what happens. But keep dreaming and keep getting help and keep moving forward.”"

"Loneliness is epidemic. I recently sat down with a group of high school seniors and looked at the difference between looking extraordinary and being extraordinary. They said looking extraordinary lasts five minutes but being extraordinary lasts a lifetime. … I think it’s so hard for people going on social media and trying to look perfect all the time. … You don’t get help.”"

"My mother taught me a lot of resilience,” she said. “She had a really tough childhood. Her father left before she was born. She had a lot of demons that I saw growing up. … She tried to commit suicide a couple of times, dealing with her demons.”"

"Wake up your spirit in the morning. You have your task mind and your spirit mind. But if you wake up with your to-do list, you’ll spend all day on tasks. But if you wake up with your spirit mind, you’ll focus on what’s really meaningful and take stock of that. If it’s watering your plants or playing with your dog, taking a little slow time will help.”"

"going towards the problem instead of away from it” and leadership as “helping people to see what isn’t there yet and help them build it.”"

"The power of who you are and who you're going to become is really dependent on something inside. It's your vision, your self-esteem, your confidence, and your ability to set goals and communicate and connect with other people," she explains. "So I want to affirm what Girls on the Run is doing and really encourage the community to get behind this because we need the power of girls. We need the power of women, as well as men, but we all need to be leading side-by-side to solve the complex problems we're dealing with in the world today."

"“I am in awe of the self-discipline that it takes and your choice to take the high road,”"

"It’s great to learn that at an early age, that what happens to you doesn’t have to - you know it can make you feel a certain way but then you have the power to turn that around," she says. "And some adults have never learned that, right?"

"The resilience that I had to show to learn how to walk again after my leg was amputated to then become an athlete when nobody would even have me on high school teams. So taking that resilience and turning it around and saying how can I give that resilience to other people?""

"By going through meeting these amazing women who were in these high roles in so many places...they brought their own personality, their femininity, their personality, their quirks to the way they led," says St. John. "And (my daughter) saw, 'Oh wait a minute, so I don't have to become like the men that I see. I should bring my own personality and leadership.' And I think that's one the most important lessons we need to give to the next generation of girls.""

"This is impossible,” she said. “I might as well get started.”"

"I think it's almost more moving because you're watching people that don't have perfect bodies and perfect genetics who are doing excellent and world class," says St. John. "And I think that's a great example for our children, for everyone, to say don't wait for things to be right before you go out and achieve excellence."

"People fall down, winners get up, and gold-medal winners just get up faster.”"

""One-legged black girl from San Diego becomes Olympic ski racer" is a crazy one."

"In California, they had integration rules, so if you were black and you were going to go to a more white school, they would give you permission to go outside your neighbourhood. We were seen to be helping integration.”"

"“I never expected to win a medal at all. Over 500 athletes from 22 countries gathered that year for the Paralympic Games. As the third-ranked amputee woman in the US, I had only barely made the cut. I was just happy to be there”."

"My mother had married an older man, who was retired, so he was home alone with me frequently while my mother was at work," she said. "He used that time to abuse me sexually, from age two until seven. I later learnt he abused my older sister as well.”"

"As a one-legged athlete, I had to find my own coaches, I had to raise money, I had to organize airline tickets, and I got a scholarship to a ski training school, but I did a lot of the initiative for that so I had to organize it," she explains. "Which I think gave me a lot of strength to be in my own business. I've been at my own business now for twenty years.""

"This is my chance for greatness,” “Finding greatness in yourself is uncomfortable, but when has anything great come from being comfortable?”"

"“I’ve had the opportunity to participate at world-class levels in so many arenas—sports, politics, academics and business—to work with the top leaders on Wall Street. Global political leaders. Top athletes. I love excellence and I love competition. To see it from so many sides is fascinating to me.”"

"“What you do when everything goes right doesn’t tell me who you are. It’s what you do after disaster that really shows your character. Not making the Olympic team. Losing a leg. Or having a market dry up that you were invested in. What are you going to do next?”"

"Courageous leaders need a community of champions,” she said. “When that happens, everybody goes further.”"

"“I was fairly young when I learned to ski and realized I could be pretty good,” she said. “So I set my sights on going all the way to the Olympics. That drove me, and gave me a real fire. When I was waiting tables in Colorado, I wasn’t just a ‘ski bum’ – I was making my way to the U.S. team. That big goal made even the little things meaningful.” “Starting a business is always hard. When I left President Clinton's economic team, I began working as a writer and speaker and got pregnant with my daughter. I no longer had an office in the White House. So I needed to be relentless again, towards another really big goal—to help the best get even better in Corporate America.”"

"“I think it’s amazing that Barbara invited her one-legged black friend from the wrong side of the tracks skiing,”"

"When I first started working in the White House, I made some embarrassing mistakes but you have to pick yourself up and start again, at every level,"

"After being in the Paralympics, I did as much as I could to support the Paralympic and the Olympic Movement.""

""I run a programme to develop corporate American leaders, who are women and minorities," she said. "Women and minorities have struggles to rise in the (Paralympic and) Olympic Movement, which we of course see in the corporate world as well. So being able to make a difference for women and minorities rising into leadership in corporate America is also dear to my heart."

"As disabled skiers, we were all used to being stared at and teased because of our differences. I got more guff from able-bodied white skiers, not so much my peers with disabilities,""

"Because I had to work so hard to get the opportunity, I was very committed to make the most of it. "My story is proof that if you have the drive and you really want to make a difference, you can."

"To win medals and then to be the first African-American, all of those things piled on each other was certainly something that strengthened my sense of self-confidence and made me set my goals even higher,""

""It's very important for me to get to be a role model for women, minorities and people with disabilities."

"When I won, it was a shock to me and I think to everyone. And it was only later that I realised I was the first African-American to win," "Oh my gosh, that was very special. It was terrific. There's just so few African-Americans in the sport, but that was a great milestone."