By now you’ve probably heard of the newest social media app, Tik Tok, a Beijing-based company hosting short-form mobile videos created by users. Recently it has come to light that the app is allegedly closely tied to the Chinese government and privacy concerns are growing.
Tik Tok has already been banned in several countries including Malaysia, Bangladesh and India. The US is also considering banning the platform for security concerns and collecting data on users as young as 13 years old.
Do you/your kids use Tik Tok? Are you concerned about your private data being stolen? Do you think the US should follow through with banning the platform?
I think something would pop up sooner or later. Tik Tok is our most recent and comparable “replacement” for Vine. Vine started in 2013 and was shut down in 2017, and Tik Tok was released world wide after merging with Musical.ly in 2018. The platform itself has changed in that time from a Musical.ly type set up to the videos we see now, and I think it’s pretty comparable to Vine. If you look up similar apps, there are a handful out there. It will be interesting to see which one “blows up” and becomes the new Vine or Tik Tok with millions of users, verified accounts, and sponsorships emerging from fame on the apps.
I’m with you Jeanine, I always think there will be the “next best thing”. If they ban it, someone will create something similar and so on. I feel like it’s more at risk just because of the very young generation that uses it. I’m glad it wasn’t around when I was 13 because most likely, 80% of these posts, people will look back on and regret posting. I’m curious, what do you think the next big social media platform will be like after instagram? Do we think that is the most popular one right now?
jsheppard11, to address your question - the reason why Trump and many other countries are fighting to shut it down or have already banned it is because it is owned by China and privacy concerns have come into play. There is no knowledge if these governments know more about the security threat than the public, but all we know so far is that it is privacy and security type concerns.
Back in December the US Army banned their soldiers from having Tik Tok on their phone due to the security threat. We’re just not sure if it will actually be country wide yet.
I think Tik Tok is the beginning of a string of Chinese technologies banned from currently being in the US or from entering the US market in the future (in addition to the 5 eyes intelligence alliance countries- Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US). The worry is the technology could be used to spy on other countries and companies. The UK recently banned Huawei from its 5G networks. The US has already banned Huawei from the 5G network, and Canada may do the same soon. Canada arrested Huawei’s CFO off of a US warrant, and just today they met the requirements to extradite her to the US.
I don’t think the US should ban TikTok. My wife uses it all day every day. Even though I don’t personally use it myself, I feel like there is just as great of a risk having user data privacy breached, as there is by any other foreign app development company that is used on a mainstream level among the masses. A similar situation happened not too long ago, when a Russian company developed a phone app where users take a picture of themselves and can make themselves look older (I forget the name of the app). If TikTok gets banned, another rip off company will come along which raises the same concerns. Does anyone else on here actively use TikTok? If so, what are your thoughts?
New development - Microsoft confirmed they have been speaking to Trump about possibly buying Tik Tok. It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.