Will Google and Apple Remove Tiktok?
Tiktok provides a great deal of entertainment. The short clips with varied topics come from pseudo financial experts telling you to purchase stocks with an insane strategy to those that provide sound financial advice. At the same time, you can find everything from cooking videos to other types of content present on TikTok.
Individuals share quite a bit about their lives, who they are, what they do, and may even reveal more sensitive information, at times.
The current U.S government leadership, just like the previous leadership team, has some concerns about the level of data that a Chinese controlled company has on United States citizens.
Let’s take a look at what is going on.
TikTok Brings You Addictive Content and it knows Quite a Bit About You
Comedians like Tony Statovci want to be on TikTok because it can help them to drastically change their lives.
The right amount of followers and an engaged base of users helps creators to establish a brand and to attract sponsors or firms who will pay them for advertisements to reach their specific audience. Audiences consume content because they can get fresh daily content from creators that they appreciate for free!
Tiktok is designed to serve up fantastic content aligned with your interests and it does it quite well. The app has been able to attract a global audience in rapid fashion. A few reports indicate that the app saw at least a 120% increase over the course of a year during the the height of the pandemic.
Sure, the app has been designed to provide an amazing experience, such a good experience that you feel compelled to share your laughter, or interesting videos with your social network. Then, it begins, the TikTok shares start to go back and forth within your network, the usage goes up, now several people in your network has the TikTok bug.
It is a wonderful thing, especially if you are TikTok, or rather Bytedance, the firm that owns TikTok.
This startling growth, rather, the TikTok contagion has been ruffling some feathers in Washington and it looks like the FCC has written to Google and Apple to take some action on TikTok.
The Government Wants TikTok Out
The FCC wants Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores by July 8th. If they do not remove it, then they will have to provide an explanation as to why they chose not to do so.
Carr, a member of the FCC notes ““TikTok is not what it appears to be on the surface. It is not just an app for sharing funny videos or meme. That’s the sheep’s clothing.” He continued “at its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data.”
The Trump admin started the process and it looks like the current admin is following their lead and delving further into data access, alignment with Google and Apple’s policies, and other aspects. It will be important to see how Apple and Google respond as the government continues to require more cooperation from social media and technology companies.