Are the Americans right about TikTok?Source: unsplash.com
The U.S. government has not been well placed in fresh months for a popular youth application. TikTok, as we talk of, is accused by American rulings of cyber-spying, content manipulation, privacy violations or data leaks. All due to the fact that the media giant belongs to the Chinese company ByteDance.
TikTok is afraid primarily due to the fact that it may be subject to Chinese national safety government which requires companies there to cooperate with national intelligence forces. In addition, hundreds of Chinese engineers and employees of the company have access to TikTok's user data, and yet any of them can work for the state. The institutions of the European Union and the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada and fresh Zealand have banned the usage of TikTok on the telephones of officials. The European Data Protection Supervisor explained this decision by the fact that specified action is intended to reduce vulnerability to cyber attacks, as the application collects quite a few data on a mobile device that could facilitate specified an attack. The investigation of the Irish Data Protection Committee, the main EU privacy authority, is besides underway to find whether European users' data has been unlawfully transmitted to China. TikTok's defenders indicate that American social networking sites, specified as Twitter, besides had a problem with the secrecy of their users from the government. There are besides voices that Mark Zuckerberg himself paid to slander TikTok. All due to the fact that the fresh app takes distant its users. The owner of the Meta technology conglomerate was to pay to Targeted Victory. The company provided false information about the Chinese application, influenced politicians and promoted and created harmful trends on TikToku.
About 150 million U.S. users are logged in on TikTok. It's a comparatively large number that TikTok wouldn't want to lose. The abroad Investment Committee recommended ByteDance to sale applications. Therefore, in consequence to threats to ban applications in the US, the company presented different solutions. The first would be task Texas, a plan to build a wall between Chinese owners and an American subsidiary. The European version of the "Project Clover" plan assumes that most European data will be transferred to servers in Europe. Both projects aim to minimise cyber espionage concerns. The manager of the U.S. National safety Agency besides warned that the Chinese control of TikToka's algorithm could lead to intellectual operations on recipients. The app has so far been criticized for censoring pro-LGBTQ+ films and about protests in China. It was besides accused of presenting worthless, stupid content to children as opposed to the educational recordings offered in the Chinese equivalent. TikTok was besides accused of misinformation, dangerous challenges and trends, and deficiency of protection of children from addiction. Opponents to these arguments indicate that Western social platforms have besides fallen victim to manipulation by abroad states. As an example, they mention Facebook, through which Russia influenced the presidential elections in the US in 2016. TickTok defends himself, claiming that he has adjusted his video moderation since 2019 and regularly issues reports on deleted content.
TikTok in the US has 150 million usersSource: unsplash.com
After U.S. authorities began demanding the sale of an American branch or the ban on the usage of TikTok in the United States of America, the CEO of TikToka Shou Zi Chew faced Congress. The proceeding was intended to give the app a chance to resolve concerns about the privacy policy and the company's links with China. Most questions revolved around national safety and ties to the Chinese government. Questions arose about the company's strategy towards harmful content and increased safety of children utilizing the platform. Politicians were frustrated by president TikTok's answers and frequently demanded a yes or no answer to the questions raised. Citizens besides accused the ruling people of the deficiency of substantive preparation for the hearing, as well as the shortcomings in current cognition of the technology we have. Analysts say that the gathering of the CEO with congressmen gave legislators even more arguments for banning or selling. However, it is not that the gathering played a very crucial function in decisions taken by the rulers. The change of opinion of the authorities was expected to be, according to experts, virtually impossible, as shown by erstwhile statements of leaders specified as Meta or Google, who did not change virtually nothing in the perception of these companies on the Capitol. There are presently respective draft laws in legislature to introduce restrictions for TikTok and another applications. An example of specified a bill is RESTRICT Senator Mark Warner. It aims to let the national government to regulate and ban technologies coming from abroad. However, the final decision on this is for the president of the United States, Joe Biden. Experts estimation that TikTok has up to six months to find a buyer in the US, otherwise he will be banned by the end of 2023. The head of diplomacy, Antony Blinken, said that TikTok was a threat to national safety and should be "finished 1 way or another." The question is how 150 million U.S. app users will respond to this.
Ms Monika Lisiak
