The problem with banning TikTok

TikTok’s in trouble. But so is the internet as we know it.

On August 6, President Trump issued an executive order prohibiting transactions with the video-sharing app TikTok. His order said that because TikTok is owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, the app could pose national security and privacy risks to users in the US.

But the Trump administration’s targeting of TikTok marks a departure from America’s traditional position on internet governance and online free speech. And it also comes at a time when the concept of a global internet itself is under threat.

Today a growing number of countries are pursuing various forms of internet sovereignty — from Russia building a walled-off “intranet,” to India regularly shutting down its internet in areas of social unrest, to some European nations introducing a “right to be forgotten” from search engines.

All these trends point in the direction of a “splinternet,” where your experience of the internet increasingly depends on where you live, and the whims of the ruling parties there. As we explain in this video, that’s a tough environment for an app like TikTok, which became globally successful almost immediately, and which connects people from around the world in hyper-personalized but often international subcultures.

With the excesses of the open internet visible daily (see: foreign election interference, data breaches, misinformation and hate speech, and domestic and corporate surveillance), the countries that do support a free internet will have to work hard to secure its future. But they may have to do it without the United States.

This project is made possible by the Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.

Sources:

[flashstar]

Everybody: Tiktok stealing data
Facebook, Google: Sweating nervously

[itsmiicoo]

TikTok uses a software that personalizes page base on your interest.

hmm... can tiktok make a dating app?

[yixuan_exe]

People who use tik tok: "wait its hated?"
*Most* of the internet: *"always has been"*

[Bekinditcostsnothing]

Tik Tok, YouTube for people with short attention spans.

[akshatsharma]

Before it was banned in India, there was a full fledged war going on between Indian Tiktokers and youtubers. I'm glad there's peace now.

[recoolify]

The main problem I can imagine is all tic tockers will move to YouTube now

[SciFactsYT]

Completely random fact:

To leave a party without telling anyone is called in English, a “French Exit”. In French, it’s called a “partir à l’anglaise”, to leave like the English.

[drewce]

People: hey tik toc you're stealing our data.
Tik toc: NO, THATS NOT TRUE, AHHHH

people: google, you're stealing our data.
Google: yeah we are.

[kevrev]

Americans: if China wants our data they'll have to buy it from Facebook like everyone else 😂😭

[skyejoung]

The internet was first created to connect the world and now people are deliberately starting to cut themselves off of it

[dogethedog]

I remember back in the days where Temple Run, Where’s my Water, Talking tom, Flappy bird, and Fruit Ninja were the most popular apps 😂

[antiiilluminatisquad]

The problem is that they're on YouTube now!

[munimuz.]

Remember when Tik Tok was just the sound of a clock?

[damagecontrol]

i still remember when TikTok used to be called Musically.

[pzkqtvm]

This feels like a Black Mirror episode, ngl.

[envar]

I don’t have tik tok and I’ll likely never get it. What I hate most about tik tok is it’s just mindless scrolling, there short videos and the majority of them are garbage. I enjoy a good laugh but tik tok is multiple of the same types of “laughs”. YouTube has longer videos and helpful, fun, educational and interesting videos like this one.

[whistletoe]

seems like everything is crashing into global politics these days...

[elliot]

TikTok: is banned in America
NordVPN: 🤑🤑🤑 💰 💰💰 💵💵💵

[yugen]

Such a half-assed narrative, didn't even talk about the sketchy underbelly of the app, & that no chinese company can challenge the overbearing Information Security law in China- If the state asks for the data, you gotta give it

[albanx]

China: bans basically every app

America: bans tik tok

China: *surprised pikachu face*