I guess I take issue with the cash redemption aspect of it. As far as I know I can't give you a reddit award - like the ones that make a special icon appear next to your name - and then you can redeem that from Reddit for cash (and lose the icon). From my reading of the article it looks like that what TikTock allows, which seems downright predatory, like an exorbitantly priced money transfer service with extra steps.

It's really no different to fast food chains or other retail outlets having promotions where they say 'for every x product sold we will donate $y to charity'.

Well, looking past the PR spin, technically they do.