Why Was TikTok Banned

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Why Was TikTok Banned

There is a silent but not so silent war brewing on many fronts. Information technology, and superpowers positioning themselves to be the caretakers and the watchdogs of the masses. Recently the trending app "TikTok" was banned. Why?

Today we will take a look at this trending issue and look at a few points. We will attempt to consider national security, what's happening on the app store, the executive order, social media in general, Chinese law, and information technology in general.

The disclaimer

The views expressed in this article are solely mine. I have attempted to do research in to this topic, however I am no means a scholar on the topic. If you find any issues or miss information that is wrong please, correct me in the comments below, or provide links to additional sources of information.


National security

The phrase "National security" to me is very much so a catchall term for anything that might impede or hamper the security of the nation. When issues of national security are brought up, people initially think of spies (or at least I do). People Selling nuclear launch codes and big Pharma tech. But national security can also be compromised in numerous other ways. From social networks of friends to locations of secret bases, and even where you go on a daily basis.

All this information can be data mined a number of sources. Tick Tok is a notoriously unsafe app that captures and transmits more data about your phone and your use your phone than most people realize. Hence creating a larger potential national security issue.

For example here is some of the data collected from you.

Everything you write, even if you don't send it. Everything you touch on the screen. Everything about the device you use to access TikTok. Your contacts. What you're interested in.
Source : HERE

That much, and much more is collected.

On the topic of national security even India recently banned 59 apps that were developed by Chinese firms.

The Indian government on Monday evening said it was banning 59 apps developed by Chinese firms over concerns that these apps were engaging in activities that threatened National Security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India in what is the latest standoff between the world's two most populated nations.
Source : Here

The app store

Currently, at the time of writing, TikTok and the 59 other banded apps are still available on the various app stores. Is also unclear exactly what this band means.

NPR had a good article about this however where they mention the following points.

"No American can give them advertising money. No American may pay them for the app. No American can enter into a transaction to put them into their App Store ," Baker said.
In other words, it would not be possible to find TikTok in app stores. And updates to the app would not be sent to the tens of millions of Americans who already have it on their phones. Eventually, that would make managing the app untenable.
Source : Here

Also the New York Times did a piece Talking about India and How they might go about enforcing such a ban on the app store.

In India, a remaining question is how the government will go about enforcing the ban announced on Monday. One option would be to pressure operators of app stores, like Apple and Google, to no longer make the services available for download. That could set off further retaliatory actions by Chinese authorities.
Source : Here .

The Executive Order

As of August 7 the executive order was signed. The executive order states that no American business should do business with the Chinese company "ByteDance Ltd". It further goes on to state that the app. Has been downloaded over a billion times globally and at least 175 million times just in the US alone.

Sky.com Did a good write-up about the specific Topic. For further reading I suggest you go here

Social media

All of this just points to the mounting issue that we currently have with web 2.0 systems. The lack of transparency, global mega corporations manipulating and data mining people, Creating potential large breaches in data security.

The question is then do you own the analytics about your life and your phone use or does that belong to someone else? Is this just the start of additional mounting issues like this?

Chinese law.

A lot of the issues people off cite stems from a 2017 Chinese law that requires companies and citizens to comply with all matters of national security. There is that nice phrase again "national security".

To quote a CNET article

The concern stems in part from the perceived inability of Chinese companies to reject requests from China's ruling Communist Party to access user data. China critics often cite a 2017 law that requires its companies and citizens to comply with all matters of national security. TikTok says all US user data is stored in the US , with a backup in Singapore. TikTok also says none of its data is subject to Chinese law.
Source : Here

However the company that runs Tik Tok says the data is stored outside of China and therefore not subject to Chinese law. Sorce

What would happen if the Chinese government compelled this company to turn over the data, we may never know. I doubt they would disclose this information.

Information technology

The Internet has only been around since about 1969 when it was called ARPA-NET and launched by the military. That's about 51 years. Facebook itself is only been around since 2004, so about 16 years, and tik toc? Way less than that.

These are all very new technologies still that we are still exploring and feeling out. Each year we see tremendous leaps in networking, new ways to engage and to connect this world together.

Web 2.0 however I believe is now on the verge of maturing. We are starting to see more awareness about what is happening underneath the hood of our phones. We are starting to realize the value of our data, the value of our personal analytics. People are weakening the idea that they are being data mined.

I believe issues like this, will help to bring about the birth of what were are already seeing on Hive.io and, the larger decentralized web, that is Web. 3.0.

Summary

It is the opinion of this humble author that the banning of TikTok is a good thing. Don't get me wrong I still despise trump (Lowercase on purpose). However, the Banning will bring this topic more to light. We need to be more aware of what our apps collect, what data we are sending out there into the world, and what ethics a company should adapt to honor and respect their users.

What are your thoughts on this?

  • Do you think it was a good action?
  • Do you currently use TikTok?
  • Do you have any feedback about this article?

As always thanks for reading.


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the game is political :)

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I will agree that some of my been politically motivated however do you think it was only/all just a political move?

If you look at it India also banned a bunch of apps from Chinese companies for same privacy violations.

I mean if you look at the amount of data that is collected and the amount of privacy violation that goes on, (* yes FB and others collect a lot of data as well, but they have more transparent, with TkTok their is no Transparency in what they collect).

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(Edited)

We see a lot of indicators and points that we might in direct global conflict. The ambition of the US is to remain in power and will do everything in their power to make the collapse of China communist party.

I believe we might see a war in the coming decade or more between the two.

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If it's banned and thus useless the price for Microsoft to buy it will sink. Simple as that.

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