tiktok

Why Are US States Banning TikTok from official devices?

In response to growing security concerns, North Carolina and Wisconsin have become the latest US states to prohibit using TikTok on state-owned devices, following at least 25 other jurisdictions that have already taken some action.

Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, a Democrat, raised privacy, security, and safety issues after discussing the app with the FBI and disaster management experts. With few exclusions, including criminal investigators who might be utilizing the app to follow particular people, Mr. Evers’ ruling applies to the majority of state agencies.

Additionally excluded is the University of Wisconsin System, which has 40,000 faculty and staff members on employment. Despite the exemption, a UW System representative said the institution was undertaking a review and working toward imposing limitations on the app’s use on devices in order to guard against major cybersecurity concerns.

Concerns that TikTok, a Chinese internet company owned by Bytedance, might be used to collect user information and data and give it to the Chinese Communist Party are a factor in the ban. Two-thirds of American teenagers use TikTok, making it the second most popular website around the globe.

Shou Zi Chew Success Story: From Ex-Facebook Intern to TikTok CEO

But there has long been a bipartisan worry in Washington that the Chinese government may try to obtain American user data or spread false information by using its legal and regulatory authority. News allegations from last year that a Chinese team had inappropriately accessed the data of American TikTok users, namely two journalists, as part of a clandestine surveillance campaign to find the source of press leaks, fanned fears. Additionally, there are worries that the corporation is violating strict European privacy laws by sending vast amounts of customer data to China.

Some states, including Texas and Ohio, cited China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which obliges businesses with regional headquarters to cooperate with law enforcement by sharing user data with them.

Other Chinese-owned platforms and apps including Weibo, WeChat, Alibaba, and Huawei Technologies are also blocked in several jurisdictions. Chris Wray, the director of the FBI, issued a caution about the possibility of espionage using TikTok in December. He noted that China can “manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump and his government wanted to ban business with TikTok’s owner, compel the company to sell over its U.S. assets, and ban TikTok from app stores.

Courts had previously thwarted Mr. Trump’s attempts to outlaw TikTok. President Joe Biden reversed Mr. Trump’s orders after assuming office but requested a thorough investigation of the matter.

The sale of TikTok’s U.S. assets was postponed. In December 2022, President Joe Biden signed a bill banning federal employees from using the TikTok app on government devices due to rising worries that the software would be used to spy on American users. As people became more aware of security risks, a number of jurisdictions started banning the app.

Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer, issued an order to the Florida Department of Financial Services in August 2020 prohibiting TikTok use on department-owned devices.

In August 2020, Nebraska was the second state to declare a ban on TikTok use on state-owned devices.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

US Senate passes bill to ban TikTok on government devices

A bill prohibiting federal employees from using the Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok on devices owned by the government was approved by the U.S. Senate late on Wednesday by voice vote.

The bill, which was supported by Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Rick Scott of Florida, and Marco Rubio of Florida, was approved by senators unanimously on Wednesday night.

Hawley noted, “TikTok is a Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party. It’s a major security risk to the United States, and until it is forced to sever ties with China completely, it has no place on government devices. States across the U.S. are banning TikTok on government devices. It’s time for Joe Biden and the Democrats to help do the same.”

Before being brought to President Joe Biden for approval, the bill still must be passed by the US House of Representatives. Before the current congressional sitting ends, which is anticipated to happen next week, the House of Representatives would have to pass the Senate bill.

The decision is the most recent move by American lawmakers to impose sanctions on Chinese firms amid concerns about national security that Beijing would use them to surveil Americans. The Senate took this decision after North Dakota and Iowa joined a rising number of American states this week in barring TikTok, owned by ByteDance, from state-owned devices out of worry that data would be given to the Chinese government.

In August 2020, legislation to prevent TikTok from being used on government equipment was unanimously enacted by the Senate during the previous Congress. Senator Josh Hawley of the Republican Party, the bill’s sponsor, revived it in 2021.

TikTok is already prohibited on devices used by many governmental institutions, including the Defense, Homeland Security, and State departments. As previously stated by Hawley, “TikTok is a major security risk to the United States, and has no place on government devices.”

Governors of North Dakota and Iowa have issued orders forbidding executive branch departments from installing the app on any technology provided by the government. Similar measures have been taken by almost a dozen American states, including Alabama and Utah this week.

TikTok, which has over 100 million users in the USA, dubbed the action as a “politically-motivated ban that will do nothing to advance the national security of the United States”.

As part of the national security assessment that was started under previous President Donald Trump, the company stated that it was preparing strategies “that we are well underway in implementing” to even further safeguard the platform in the US. The statement read, “We will continue to brief members of Congress on the plans.”

Australia and other nations have seen calls to ban TikTok, and Taiwan recently attempted to ban it on public devices. India blocked the TikTok app in 2020. Due to a Trump executive order that prohibited new downloads, TikTok was facing an effective ban in the US two years ago. However, judges rejected the order, and it was never put into effect.

President Joe Biden eventually revoked it. ByteDance was also ordered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is in charge of examining foreign ownership in the US, to sell TikTok in 2020. The company is still in talks with that agency.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Is Elon Musk planning to bring back the Vine app?

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and the current owner of Twitter, does not appear to be resting. Not even a week after accomplishing the $44 billion Twitter acquisition deal, the billionaire is now going to consider resurrecting Vine, an app that allowed users to capture and enjoy sharing an unlimited number of short, looping 6-second videos. Twitter ended up buying it in October 2012 and decided to sell it four years later.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder as well as former Chief executive officer, stated that closing Vine had been his “biggest regret.”

Now, the Twitter platform’s current owner or Chief Twit has directed Twitter engineers to get to work on a Vine relaunch, which could be ready by the end of the year. According to Axios, the developers have been instructed to take a look at the old code base of Vine, which has not been altered or updated since the shutdown.

A source told Axios that there’s a lot of work to be done. Extensive negotiations are currently happening inside the networking community about a potential Vine revival, according to a Twitter employee.

Elon Musk has been attempting to give hints about the reintroduction of the Vine app on Twitter, and he even started a Twitter poll asking if indeed the app should be reintroduced on Sunday. “Bring Vine back?” he demanded outrightly. A total of 4,920,155 votes had been cast in the poll, with 69.5 per cent in favour and one-third opposed.

The reason to reintroduce Vine

The reason Elon Musk may introduce Vine again is simple which is the revenue potential. TikTok is now not only the most popular app in the world but also one of the highest-grossing apps. According to Finbold data, the short-form video platform TikTok is one of the top social media platforms generating the most revenue.

The app obtained $2.5 million per day on Android and iPhone devices all over the world in September, excluding the iPad. This probably amounts to an hourly wage of around $104,000.

TikTok managed to earn $75.8 million in overall revenue during the month. TikTok competitors can also be found on Facebook and Google.

Why was Vine shut down?

Vine was brought down in October 2016 by Twitter. “Today, we are sharing the news that in the coming months we’ll be discontinuing the mobile app,” the company said in a statement.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Though Twitter never said exactly what went wrong, the app struggled to grow its user base and find ways to make money. Vine once had a commanding lead over other social video apps, but it couldn’t keep up as competitors added features.

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person

Kevin Mayer TikTok CEO resigns as Trump administration plans to ban.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News, TikTok / By Annasha

Media has been flooding with the news regarding Chinese apps and its role in privacy breaches since the outburst of the novel coronavirus. Once the pandemic took a toll on all our lives, from vivid facts to conspiracy theories have come up regarding China being responsible for this havoc. Though the other nations suspect COVID-19 as a biological weapon, there is no strong evidence supporting it. But, seeing China as a threat to the world especially the U.S., Trump administration decided to ban the Chinese apps mainly TikTok and WeChat.

The Big news

The relationship between China and the U.S has gotten stale with Trump announcing the ban on Chinese apps. To expand the Clean Network, Trump gave a deadline until mid-September to sell the assets of TikTok to any other company. With Trump accusing such Chinese apps of information theft, political battles have increased since the last month. Amongst this grave tension, Kevin Mayer, the new CEO of TikTok decided to step down yesterday. In the meantime, Vanessa Papas, the current general manager of TikTok will take his position as the interim head.

Why Kevin Mayer stepped down?

It has been only 100 days since Kevin Mayer, former Disney executive joined the most famous small video making Chinese app, TikTok owned by ByteDance. Kevin Mayer made a big decision resigning from Disney to become the CEO of TikTok, but unfortunately, everything went haywire. After Trump gave an order earlier this month to ban the Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat, the disturbance created between Beijing and Washington.

Before the ban of TikTok in the U.S., India banned all the Chinese apps mainly because of the dispute regarding the LAC. With all these political tensions not stopping anytime sooner, Kevin’s scope in TikTok might not go as expected. So, his decision to step down from the company is completely understandable, said a TikTok’s spokesperson to TechCrunch. Moreover, only a few days back TikTok sued the U.S. government for false accusations against the company.

The fight that both the TikTok and the U.S. government have picked up will have harsh consequences in the future for both sides. Kevin Mayer didn’t expect political tension of this intensity to fall upon his reign and hence he decided to step down. Moreover, the timeline of becoming the newest CEO of the company and the political rivalry has clashed coincidentally. But, Kevin has all the right to get far away from this growing tension and seek a better career opportunity.

Why did Trump order a ban on Chinese apps?

On 6th August 2020, Trump signed an executive order thus banning TikTok and WeChat within a timeline of 45 days. Trump accused these Chinese apps of stealing data that might harm the privacy of the U.S. citizens and compromise the national security of the nation. He also supported India’s act of banning 59 Chinese apps and decided it is time the U.S. takes some strict action against this information theft. It banned all U.S. citizens to conduct any transaction through these platforms or any brand from the U.S. to advertise their products.

This was a big blow for TikTok as the U.S. served as one of the biggest markets for the platform. In 2020, TikTok gained revenue of $200 million for the U.S. alone. Getting banned from the U.S. brought a huge loss for the company. Moreover, with China being thrashed everywhere in social media for the COVID-19 pandemic, the company should keep fingers crossed until any other nation takes a bold step.

Bargaining over the U.S. assets of TikTok

After Trump administration imposed banned on the U.S. operations of TikTok, many companies have come forward for buying them. Microsoft being the first company to take interest in buying the U.S. operations of TikTok, Trump was interested to sell it. Meanwhile, Twitter showed interest in buying the company’s U.S. assets but this decision was questioned. The market capitalization of Twitter is almost equal to the TikTok’s value of U.S. operation while Microsoft’s valuation is in trillions. So, it becomes crystal clear who might win the bidding. Apart from Microsoft and Twitter, Oracle is the third bidder. But, till now Microsoft is winning the race.

Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

TikTok Strikes Back by Suing the Trump Administration for Ban

Leave a Comment / Tech News / By Athulya

The COVID-19 situation has led to several political and economic issues with certain nations beginning a trade war with China. The US has been very vocal with its displeasure regarding Chinese handling of the health pandemic. This has led to the souring of the economic and political relationship between the two nations. As a result, President Donald Trump stated that certain Chinese products and services would now not be available in the US. Furthermore, the American government has banned Chinese manufacturers from making excessive use of American technology. The most shocking of these moves was the one to ban TikTok in the US. However, reports state that TikTok has sued the Trump Administration for the same. Here’s a look at how the situation played out and what it could mean for the viral video platform.

TikTok Strikes Back

Reports state that the viral video-sharing platform filed a lawsuit on Monday against the executive order brought out by Trump. The lawsuit says that the order does not have enough evidence to deploy such strong measures against the use of the app. The company also states that the imminent ban on the app from September 20th violated its right to function within the US. TikTok has been facing scrutiny from around the world due to its ownership by ByteDance, a Chinese tech company. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court of California, and lashes back at the executive order that came out on August 6th. It further claims that the executive order did not follow the due procedure or prove that the app was a threat to American security.

Politics, Not Science

TikTok is an immensely popular video sharing platform that boasts of over 100 million users in America. The lawsuit filed by them claims that the company did not get an opportunity to put across their point. Furthermore, the lawsuit states that concerns regarding national security did not have any merit as there is no data to back these claims. The complaint also says that the order holds no value as it is a political stunt rather than an action taken due to fear for national security. The company also wrote that IT experts had rejected the order stating that it was more of a political tool rather than one backed by actual scientific data.

Executive Order by Trump

President Trump’s executive order, if it does come into effect will lead to a ban on American companies to engage or be a part of transactions with ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok. The order said that the data collected by TikTok from American users would help the Chinese Communist Party gain insights into personal details of American citizens. It also blamed the Party for snooping on US citizens, making the application a threat to national security, unless it changes ownership to an American company.

Similar Views in India

The executive order came right after India banned TikTok in June, along with another 58 Chinese applications. India too had cited national integrity and security as reasons for banning the application. However, TikTok has vehemently denied both these claims and says that it has no ties with the Chinese government. Furthermore, TikTok also refuted claims that it always censored content that was critical of the Chinese system or government. However, CIA analysts reported to the White House that the Chinese Intelligence services could exploit the data that TikTok possesses.

Global Interest

TikTok had also put out a blog earlier this month wherein it called Trump’s order a political move that undermines global companies, and their trust in the US. However, as a result of these events, tech giant Microsoft had expressed an interest to purchase TikTok’s American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand divisions. But the deal by Microsoft requires the acquisition to happen before September 15th, which is the date the order comes into effect.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that Twitter was in talks to acquire the video platform, but that chances of the deal happening were low. While Apple denied having any interest, Alphabet, which owns Google too had expressed an early interest. However, as of now, there is no confirmation or signs that any of these talks have gotten very far. Also, the filing of this lawsuit shows that TikTok wants to preserve its identity, rather than selling out to an American company. It will be interesting to see whether the American courts take the lawsuit seriously, owing to how the order comes directly from the President.

Athulya

Being a cinephile with a love for all things outdoorsy, Athulya never misses a chance to chase inspiring stories or poke fun at things, even when the subject is herself. Currently pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, she is someone innately interested in technical and scientific research. Music reviews and op-eds define her as they allow her to explore different perspectives. Though sometimes she thinks she makes more sense playing the guitar than she does while writing.

Twitter shows interest in buying TikTok’s US operations by outbidding Microsoft

Leave a Comment / COVID-19, Microsoft, News, Story, TikTok / By Annasha

ByteDance, a Chinese company is the owner of the very famous video sharing platform, TikTok. With the advent of the global pandemic which emerged out from the Chinese city Wuhan, many nations have turned against China. Whether it’s a serious innocent breakout of an infectious disease or a plotted biological weapon is still in question. But, with almost every country around the globe suffering tremendously, many unpredictable decisions have been taking place.

Last week, Trump announced the ban of TikTok along with other Chinese apps from the U.S. Apart from all the other Chinese applications; TikTok has a very wide user base not only in the U.S. but also around the world. Trump has expressed the need of the hour to ban these Chinese apps as they might be responsible for serious data theft that can put the nation’s security in jeopardy. So, with a 45-days timeline to ban the usage of any Chinese apps by the U.S. citizens, Microsoft showed interest in buying the U.S. operations of TikTok. But, it is only yesterday that Twitter showed interest in buying the same by outdoing Microsoft in bidding.

Can Twitter manage to Finance?

Yesterday, the news of Twitter being interested to buy ByteDance owned TikTok was delivered to Reuters from a trusted source. But, it is a big question if Twitter has the capital to buy the U.S. operations of TikTok. The market capitalization of Twitter is around $30 billion which is nearly equal to the assets of TikTok put on sale. On the other hand, Microsoft’s market capitalization is around $1.3 trillion which makes the scenario clear about the bidding.

So, if Twitter is having a serious plan to buy the U.S. operations of TikTok, it needs to raise additional capital. In a normal situation, it would have been easy to raise money, but with the pandemic creating havoc in the financial world and a time strain of 45-days it is a very difficult task.

Due to these two important factors, Microsoft is still on the run and occupy the first place for the bidding. Erik Gordon, a professor from the University of Michigan said that Twitter doesn’t have enough borrowing capacity making it even harder to acquire the U.S. operations of TikTok. Moreover, the current shareholders of Twitter might think that expanding business in this crisis might be a big risk and it will be better if the company (Twitter) focuses on its existing business.

Protecting the Nation

A couple of months back India decided to take strict action against China because of two main reasons, first the outbreak of COVID-19 from Wuhan which might be a strong conspiracy against the world, and second, the dispute regarding LAC. So, Indian banned all the Chinese apps hence taking a big step and protecting the nation’s security from compromising. Now, a similar action was taken by the American president, Donald Trump, thus banning Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat.

Trump has also mentioned that this is one step forward towards protecting sensitive information and privacy of U.S. citizens from China. These apps are gaining access to information of every user and it can be used against the U.S. for many purposes. He also told that the ban of Chinese apps will also improve Clean Network thus adding five more lines of effort, namely, Clean Carrier, Clean Cable, Clean Apps, Clean Store, and Clean Cloud. And, lastly, he gave a deadline of 45 days and in mid-September, the ban will be imposed completely.

TikTok’s current reputation

With the novel coronavirus pandemic, the reputation of China as well as its apps is degrading. But, TikTok is used by billions of users around the world, and especially in the U.S., it has millions of fans. Many citizens of the U.S. have expressed outrage towards Donald Trump after he declared the ban of TikTok. But, no matter what a nation’s security should always be the priority. Moreover, it will also become a golden opportunity for the country’s app developers to create something similar and make it a big hit.

The relationship between Twitter and Donald Trump has become sour as the president accused the platform of unfairly censoring him. So, apart from the capital of Microsoft being incredibly bigger than Twitter’s, it is likely Trump will support the acquisition by Microsoft.