TikTok is a Chinese owned mobile video app that has gained a massive audience over recent years. Its main users are between the ages of 16-24 and many creators have built a career out of it by collaborating with brands and doing sponsored content on the app. So you may ask, “Why has it suddenly become a danger to society?” We are here to answer all your questions and why it’s not a good idea to use this app.
India has recently taken a huge step towards this and banned 59 Chinese apps one of which included TikTok. The Indian government cited security reasons and believes that such apps are a danger to the country and are “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, the security of the state and public order.”
In light of the above paragraph, the Chinese government introduced a law in 2017 stating that “any organization and citizen” shall “support and cooperate in national intelligence work,” according to Foreign Policy magazine. This means the Chinese can have access to any information at any time from these apps. And TikTok having an estimated 800 million users was a huge threat to other country’s information.
The US Department of Defence has also warned people to take caution against such apps especially TikTok over National Security Concerns. In an article by Inc.com, it says that the DoD voices its concerns over, “the app’s popularity with Western users including armed forces personnel, and its ability to convey location, image, and biometric data to its Chinese parent company, which is legally unable to refuse to share data to the Chinese government.” This could be a huge threat to a country’s personal information on its citizens and should be of huge concern to any government.
Amazon also recently announced on 10th July 2020 asking all of its employees to delete TikTok from any mobile device used to access Amazon email services due to security risks. Even though an Amazon spokesperson has come forward and said that it was an error, this could be pointing towards more companies being aware of how their information could be misused by the Chinese government and could be a huge threat to national security.
Now, coming to the dangers of TikTok and how it is directly impacting the daily users. The average parent is very concerned and rightly so. No one wants their 13-year-old kid to be mouthing words to songs that have slurs and have 400+ unknown people following them. The internet is a scary place and one cannot be careful enough to not fall into the hands of a predator. The younger girls could receive creepy and upsetting messages from older men and could really take a toll on their mental health at such a delicate age. It has also been shown that TikTok censors content from the LGBTQ community and overweight creators.
Recent iOS 14 release exposed another privacy/security issue in TikTok. iOS 14 beta showed that TikTok was spying on users using their clipboard content. More details are available in Mashable article.
With all the growing concerns over TikTok and it being banned in India, many creators have lost their platform and means of income. Millions of creators who worked hard to build their brand online have been displaced and this could be the right time for Indian developers to up their game and come up with even better apps that cater to all their needs and ensure maximum privacy of the information of all its users. “Made in India” should become a household name if we want to compete globally.