Tech News

One year after TikTok Trump’s ban: no change, but new threats

[ad_1]

It will be marked on Saturday since a year Donald Trump he said would prohibit a hugely popular and annoying short video app TikTok Millions of smartphones from the US, citing threats to the privacy and security of users of its Chinese property.

A week later, Trump signed it executive order directed by the Chinese owner of the application, ByteDance, To see TikTok sell to an American business within 45 days or to be forcibly removed and blocked from app stores. The period was extended several times, and Oracle and Walmart he arose as a supposed savior In a later agreement for TikTok on the shelf. At one point, Trump boldly suggested that sales should be a cut for the U.S. government the same.

A year later, nothing has changed and everything has changed. ByteDance still owns TikTok, and in the first four months of this year, the U.S. added 7 million new users. Trump has disappeared and the U.S. government’s threat has backfired, but now the Chinese government is coming over the popular application.

“If I were ByteDance I wouldn’t be pouring champagne,” he says James LewisDeputy Director and General Manager of the Strategic Technologies Program Center for Strategic and International Research. “TikTok might be perfect, but the landscape is moving around them, mostly because of Chinese activity.”

China has taken an increasingly tough approach to regulating its technology companies and analyzing the data they hold. After Ant Financial’s IPO came out, a spinoff of a huge ecommerce Alibaba, last December, the government introduced new cybersecurity rules in April, making home technology companies more closely linked.

This month, the Chinese government banned the new Didi service from registering new users and ordered the removal of the app from Chinese app stores within days of the company’s IPO. he was said to have been challenged recommendation for postponement for cybersecurity audit. It also has ByteDance on the shelf as a result of a similar analysis by the government of its own IPO.

In the US, President Biden in June he retired Trump’s executive order is trying to ban TikTok, as well as another Chinese-owned app, WeChat. Last week, TikTok and the administration he agreed to leave the case For Trump’s ban attempt. But Biden promised the Department of Commerce to launch an investigation into foreign-owned applications, including TikTok.

Lewis believes that the White House of Biden feels as uncomfortable as the previous one. He said the administration could issue an executive order that would result in a mandatory sale. “This administration is harder than Trump in China because they are partly organized,” he says. “It’s not chaos.”

Trump’s moves against TikTok came amid growing skepticism in China’s west of economic growth and technological reach. Several European countries have sought to limit economic ties with China in recent years, according to July 2020 report From the Brookings Institution, the DC-based think tank.

The feeling goes on both sides. Rui Ma, analyst Tech Buzz China Anyone who follows ByteDance closely said that there has been a huge public push in China with the idea of ​​selling ByteDance TikTok. Some people feared that U.S. property could pose security risks to the parent company and data from local Chinese customers.

TikTok seems unlikely to be an object of superpower competition. The app offers endless quirky cameos from remastered songs, memes, viral clips, and celebrity stars, algorithmically selected to appeal to your interests and tastes. Trump’s ban came last year filled with shock and disbelief from TikTok-addicted teenagers; others he highlighted the irony of being closed A platform that rewards freedom of expression in the name of punishing China, where information is well controlled.

ByteDance hardly seems to be an agent of the Chinese government. The company has been confronted government pressure for the nonsensical content or appearance offered by his news app in recent years Jinri Toutiao (means “today’s headline”). But TikTok’s ties with China remain a concern for the U.S. government, especially as its reach and impact grow. TikTok’s U.S. users rose to 73.7 million in April from 65.9 million at the end of 2020, according to to eMarketer, a business analyst. The app is a striking example of a high-tech business expert in China who surpasses some of the world’s largest social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, in their home field in Silicon Valley.

TikTok ByteDance has grown since 2017 when it bought the Music.ly app for synthetic lips in the US. At Trump’s behest, the U.S. Foreign Investment Commission conducted a retrospective study of the purchase of Musical.ly, to be completed in August 2020 that it was a threat to national security. CFIUS and the Department of Commerce have not responded to requests for comment.

TikTok has launched new initiatives aimed at enabling users to participate in and use the platform in new ways. Including last week a way for users to apply for jobs Sending “TikTok resume” to send to select companies hired. “TikTok has massive data on Americans,” Lewis says. “It has faces, voice and IP. It has become a huge window into American society. “

[ad_2]

Source link

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button