Oh look they’re getting too big let’s destroy them
It’s almost over for Tik Tok,
Without US Traffic Tik Tok is nearly Kaput.
The timing is also suspicious as YouTube shorts is only just getting monetised.
However the African market is huge so there may be hope for Tik Tok if they refocus their energy.
Pressure is mounting from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress to pass a national ban on TikTok, the social video app owned by Chinese company ByteDance which has already been banned on federal devices and some college campuses over privacy concerns.
TikTok has faced calls for bans from critics who fear China may use the platform to access the data of American users.
Criticisms of the social platform intensified in the fall after reports revealed ByteDance repeatedly accessed U.S. user data and planned to use TikTok to track the location of specific American citizens (including Forbes journalists).
ByteDance previously denied it had used TikTok to “target” journalists or public figures, but after an internal investigation revealed employees tracked journalists covering the company, it fired its chief internal auditor who led the team orchestrating the surveillance.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who sponsored the ban on TikTok on federal devices which was signed into law in December, also introduced broader legislation on January 25 which would ban TikTok on all devices inside the U.S.
Republicans have long called for a ban, claiming TikTok would allow the Chinese government to spy on American citizens — but they’re now joined by a small number of Democrats, including Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who urged Apple and Google last week to remove the app from their respective stores.
President Joe Biden approved a ban on TikTok on devices owned by government agencies in December, following a wave of primarily Republican-led states who had passed similar measures.
Since December, a number of schools and university systems have banned TikTok on school-owned devices and on school wifi and have discouraged the use of TikTok on students’ personal devices.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23. He is expected to field questions about consumer privacy, data security and TikTok’s “relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.” TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement the company welcomes the opportunity to “set the record straight about TikTok, ByteDance, and the commitments we are making to address concerns about U.S. national security.”
Schools who’ve banned TikTok on campus devices and networks include the University of Texas, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, the University of Central Oklahoma, Boise State University, Auburn University, Arkansas State University, University of Georgia, Idaho State University, Iowa Public Universities, Morgan State University, Montana University System, Northeastern State University, and South Dakota University System.
TikTok, an algorithm-based, short-form video sharing social media platform, exploded in popularity over the past several years, reaching one billion monthly active users in September 2021. It’s still relatively young compared to its social media competitors: it launched in 2016 in China as Douyin and merged with musical.ly in August of 2018. It’s widely popular with teenagers — a 2022 Pew Research Center survey found two-thirds of American teenagers aged 13-17 use the app. TikTok is used worldwide, though several countries have raised data privacy and other concerns — most notably, India banned the app in 2020 over security concerns.
Oh look they’re getting too big let’s destroy them
Perfect timing for YouTube Coincidence?
