NEW DELHI (AP) — The hugely popular Chinese app TikTok may be forced to leave the USwhere a measure to ban the video-sharing app has won congressional approval and is on its way to President Biden for signature.
In India, the application was banned almost four years ago. Here’s what happened:
WHY DID INDIA BAN TIKTOK?
In June 2020, TikTok users in India said goodbye to the app, which is operated by Chinese internet company ByteDance. New Delhi suddenly banned the popular app, along with dozens of other Chinese apps, following a military clash along the India-China border. Twenty Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed and ties between the two Asian giants reached a new level.
The government cited privacy concerns and said Chinese apps pose a threat to India’s sovereignty and security.
The move drew mostly widespread support in India, where protesters had been calling for a boycott of Chinese goods since the deadly clash in the remote mountainous border region of Karakoram.
“There was an outcry leading up to this, and the popular narrative was how can we allow Chinese companies to do business in India when we are in the middle of a military standoff,” said Nikhil Pahwa, a digital policy expert and founder of technology website MediaNama.
A few months before the ban, India had also restricted investment by Chinese companies, Pahwa added. “TikTok was not a unique case. Today, India has banned over 500 Chinese apps so far.”
HOW DID USERS AND CREATORS REACT?
At the time, India had around 200 million TikTok users, most outside China. And the company also employed thousands of Indians.
TikTok users and content creators, however, needed somewhere to go — and the ban provided a multibillion-dollar opportunity to capture a huge market. Within months, Google launched YouTube Shorts and Instagram launched its Reels feature. Both mimicked the short video creation that TikTok excelled at.
“And they ended up capturing most of the market that TikTok had vacated,” said Pahwa.
In India, TikTok’s content was hyperlocal, which made it unique. It opened a window into life in India’s small towns, with videos coming from tier 2 and 3 cities that showed people doing tricks while laying bricks, for example.
But for the most part, content creators and users in the four years since the ban have migrated to other platforms.
Winnie Sangma misses posting videos on TikTok and earning some money. But after the ban, he migrated to Instagram and now has 15 thousand followers. The process, for the most part, was relatively painless.
“I’ve also gained followers on Instagram and I’m making money from that, but the experience isn’t like it used to be on TikTok,” he said.
Rajib Dutta, a frequent scroller on TikTok, also switched to Instagram after the ban. “It wasn’t really a big deal,” he said.
HOW INDIA’S PROHIBITION IS DIFFERENT FROM THE US
O legislation to ban the app it received congressional approval and now awaits Biden’s signature.
The measure gives ByteDance, the app’s controller, nine months to sell it and another three if the sale is ongoing. If this doesn’t happen, TikTok will be banned. It would take at least a year for the ban to take effect, but with court challenges likely, it could take longer.
In India, the ban in 2020 was swift. TikTok and other companies took time to answer questions about privacy and security, and in January 2021 it became a permanent ban.
But the situation in the US is different, Pahwa said. “In India, TikTok decided not to go to court, but the US is a bigger revenue market for them. Also, the Fourth Amendment in America is quite strong, so it won’t be as easy for the US to do this as it was for India.”
As Chinese apps proliferate around the world, Pahwa says countries need to assess their dependence on China and develop a way to reduce it, as the apps can pose a risk to national security.
The app was also banned in Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan and restricted in many European countries.
“Chinese intelligence law and its cybersecurity law may allow Chinese applications to operate in the interests of their own security. This creates a situation of distrust and becomes a risk to the national security of others,” Pahwa said.
“There should be different rules for democratic countries and for authoritarian regimes where companies can act as an extension of the State,” he added.
