The
authorities warn of a threat to national security; This could mean the end of
TikTok in the United States.
TikTok
has become the only social network that has managed to shade Facebook and
Instagram in downloads. With more than 500 million active users, it was the
most downloaded app on iPhone in 2018. Its short videos with special effects
and the simple usability of its interface made the platform the favorite of the
Z generation. But its resounding success is accompanied of political
concerns.
India -
where there are more than 300 million downloads - banned the use of TikTok for
days by broadcasting pornography; musical.ly - TikTok's precursor app -
deliberately stored content published by minors; The social network was accused
of censoring videos of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests following orders from
the Chinese government. Now, the survival of the platform in the United States
is hanging by a thread because it constitutes a possible risk to national
security.
The end
of TikTok in the US?
TikTok
has been branded in the US as the target of a political campaign of foreign
influence. These types of campaigns were carried out on Facebook and Twitter in
2016 and have led Mark Zuckerberg to appear recently before Congress for the
misuse of data from 87 million users; in the case of Twitter, he has just
banned political ads to prevent his algorithm from manipulating the public
debate.
Given
these accusations, ByteDance, the mother company of TikTok, said the app does
not broadcast political campaigns, but the US authorities said that even so,
the Chinese government could be using “personal confidential information” of
TikTok users for their benefit. .
This is
because China wants its social applications to allow its government access to
personal information of users, which could pose a threat to the data protection
of citizens using the app.
"It
is fashionable to pretend that concerns about the Chinese technological domain
are only a smokescreen of US executives, but if you really care about privacy,
security and content moderation, then you should pay attention to TikTok",
the former head of security on Facebook and current professor at Standford
University, Alex Stamos, said on Twitter.
ByteDance
said that data from foreign users to China is not shared with the country's
authorities, and that they are being stored separately. But despite these
statements, the Foreign Investment Committee in the United States, CFIUS, asked
TikTok this week to testify at a congressional hearing to clarify accusations
about its relationship with the Chinese government.
If the
result of the investigations reveals the governmental dependence of TikTok in
China, ByteDance could be forced to sell the app. This would mean the end of
this social network in the United States, and would serve as a warning for any
Chinese company that wants to enter and succeed in the American market.
Grindr:
TikTok's mirror?
The same
committee requested this year that Grindr, the gay dating app that is also
owned by a Chinese company, Kulun, be sold because it had too much personal
information about American soldiers.
Kulun
will sell Grindr in 2020. TikTok could suffer a similar fate if the United
States manages to prove that the app represents a real threat to the country's
citizenship.
Is this
the internet we want?
SOURCE: PlaygroundMag
