Countries around the world are becoming more in favor of blocking TikTok every day.
The explosive popularity of our social networks continues to cause videos to raise more questions in various governments. The authorities are worried about national security, and not without reason. The fact that TikTok follows its users has been talked about for several years now.
And on April 24, US President Joe Biden signed a law forcing ByteDance to sell the service to lawyers. Otherwise it will be blocked. To which the company responded that TikTok would be closed in the country, but would not be sold.
Short description
Why is everyone talking about a TikTok ban?
What data are we talking about?
Where has TikTok already been blocked, and where is it being discussed?
What’s going on with TikTok in Russia?
Why is everyone talking about a TikTok ban?
In 2024, TikTok will remain one of the leaders among social networks around the world. In the Russian App Store today it ranks second among application advertisements and first place in the category Entertainment.
The main reason for the ban was the legislative service for visitors. The company does not even hide the fact of collecting a ton of data and openly states this on its website. True, it conceals some points that security experts have found in the past.
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What data are we talking about?
Information about the hardware of the smartphone. Processor model, type, number of cores, unique identifiers, screen and display resolution per inch, amount of RAM and much more. Here we look in detail at how the company obtains the finest data about your device.
Personal data. Your name, age, nickname, email address, password, phone number, location.
Correspondence and exchange of buffers. The content of messages when they are sent, received and read (the company talks about this directly in the license agreement). I also walk and analyze text and media files from the clipboard.
Financial information. This includes card numbers, billing and shipping addresses.
User activity on other platforms. In iOS, this feature is limited to the wireless system, but in Android there are no such restrictions.
Wiretapping. The social network can listen through the microphone if it does not interfere with its access to what is happening near you. There is no evidence that this happens while you are not in the application, but it is actively used in the application.
Biometric identifiers. The service has learned to transmit so-called face and voice prints. These are not specific scans of your faces or copies of your voices, but typical behavioral elements from videos published on the platform. ByteDance does not specify what they do with this information and in what form it is stored. But in the era of deepfakes, similar questions arise.
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List of supported applications. It is compiled on Android and using special tools for other platforms. For example, working in the background of TikTok, it intercepts the opening of links in external programs.
Disabling an application when transferring personal data is prohibited. If the application sees that the user has blocked TikTok’s connection to servers that receive personal data, then it stops working.
According to the company itself, which collects data warehouses in China. Accordingly, this data may be available to the Chinese government. And in the United States, they are generally confident that China can use the people’s platform as a propaganda tool, influencing people with its help.
In addition, TikTok constantly changes its algorithms, which makes it difficult to track its actions. The company is doing its best to protect itself from outside supplies.
Many elements of the social network work on the developers’ servers, so it’s more difficult to get to them. Developers have been discussing this issue for several years in connection with the fact that the application collects too much data – no one knows what ByteDance does with it next. And the harsh statement about the sale of services by entrepreneurs raises new questions.
Accordingly, this data may be available to the Chinese government. And secondly, US officials suspect that China may be using the popular platform as a propaganda tool to influence American citizens.
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Where has TikTok already been blocked, and where is it being discussed?
In fact, the block list is already quite large. But it is mostly related to the country’s public sectors, and not to a total lockdown.
1. USA. They gave 9 months to sell TikTok, or then it was blocked in the country.
2. India. Complete ban on use in the country, blocked.
3. European Union. The European Parliament has banned TikTok and “real support” MPs and staff from deleting the app from their official devices.
4. Great Britain. Ban TikTok on smartphones, use government ministers and civil servants.
5. Canada. Banned TikTok on all government-issued mobile devices.
6. Australia. TikTok banned on all devices, enforced by the federal government,
7. New Zealand. A ban on installation of the application on the smartphones of government legislators.
8. Taiwan. Ban the app in the public sector.
9. Nepal. Complete ban on the TikTok app.
10. Somalia. Complete ban on TikTok.
eleven. Afghanistan. TikTok blocking
12. Pakistan. Periodically prohibits, but then unblocks TikTok in the country.
13. Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyzstan). The issue of limiting the operation of TikTok in the country is being discussed. Reason: non-compliance with the legislation “On measures to prevent harm to children’s health, their deterioration, intellectual, mental, spiritual and moral development in the Kyrgyz Republic.”
However, some providers and operators are already actively blocking social networks.
14. Kazakhstan. Following Kyrgyzstan, they plan to introduce restrictions or completely block the social network. So far only at the discussion level.
15. China. The service is blocked in the country, but its subsidiary Douyin operates instead.
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What’s going on with TikTok in Russia?
Discussions about blocking TikTok have been ongoing for the first year in Russia. Today a proposal was once again put forward, but the issue has not yet been discussed further.
According to Sultan Khamzaev, a member of the State Duma Committee on Security, TikTok is an algorithm that is designed to “suppress and dress children in their own ways.” He believes that the social network violates national legislation regarding the psychological health of children.
Against the background of a reliable block in the US, ByteDance ultimately decided to abandon its support for sanctions and gradually begin to return Russians’ access to foreign content, according to Ekaterina Mizulina.
It is unknown whether the authorities are going to block the service in the country. However, one thing is clear – trust in him is becoming less and less every day.
Source: Iphones RU
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
