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What Happened to TikTok?
The latest update on the plight of TikTok has the ban lifted in Bangladesh. But the company faces the same restrictions in the months of Sept. 20 and Nov. 12. Its data access issue remains. Until now, it was unclear if the company would shut down or if it would face similar restrictions in the near future. And as for its future, it’s difficult to predict, since the service is still in its infancy.
TikTok ban cleared by Bangladeshi government
In November 2018, Bangladesh attempted to ban TikTok. The government blocked Internet access to the app and requested that all users delete 10 videos. The ban had no connection to the social network’s content, and there was no clear evidence to justify the restrictions. This may interest you : How to Get Unbanned From TikTok. In March 2020, the Bangladesh government presented a draft for TikTok representatives to review. The ban was lifted after the representatives were asked to remove ten videos.
The government is investigating allegations that TikTok is a tool used to lure teenage girls into transnational sex trafficking. While transnational sex trafficking is not a new problem in Bangladesh, this is likely the first instance of large-scale trafficking via TikTok. While it is important to ensure that a country doesn’t become a victim of a transnational crime, a blanket ban is unlikely to have a positive impact.
It’s unclear if it will shut down in 2022
While many people use TikTok as a way to share funny videos, it’s more of a surveillance tool that harvests vast amounts of personal data. TikTok is under intense pressure from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to separate its operations from parent company ByteDance. This may interest you : How Long Are TikTok Videos?. While ByteDance is willing to comply with the FCC’s requests, it’s unclear whether it will do so in order to appease the Trump administration.
The app’s popularity has prompted several lawsuits and backlash, including a recent lawsuit against the United States government. Many users thought that TikTok would shut down in 2020, but this has not happened yet. In fact, TikTok is reportedly free in most major countries, including India. However, some countries have banned it, including India and Bangladesh. Some reports have suggested that it might be banned by the United States during Donald Trump’s presidency.
Its data access problem persists
The TikTok data access problem continues to plague the video sharing application. The company has confirmed several vulnerabilities and patched them all, but still, many users are concerned about how TikTok is using their data and how it could be used against them. This may interest you : How to Change Your Birthday on TikTok. In fact, TikTok received almost 3,000 requests from government agencies in the first six months of 2021, more than double the number received in the same period in the previous year. As of April 2019, the company had already received about a thousand requests for data pertaining to its users in the U.S.
The data access issue isn’t limited to TikTok. Last year, Facebook and Twitter banned TikTok from their 5G networks, because it has ties to the Chinese regime. While that ban is understandable, the company is doing something about it. While it’s still too early to tell whether the new security measures will make a difference, TikTok has been addressing this problem by redirecting its pipes and servers to U.S. data centers. However, it remains unclear if these steps will fix the problem and if they will resolve the data access issues.
