By A09 – Own Work

I am leery about this chirp because I don’t know much about the subject matter. Though some (many) will say that has not stopped me before. A lot of the subject matter is very technical which causes my (bird) brain to freeze.

This is a world map of various Tik Tok censorship. The blue is for countries that have banned from government devices. The red is for countries who have banned Tik Tok in the past. And so on. France, one of the blue countries, have gone a step further by banning Tik Tok Face Book and Instagram from government devices.

In the US, there are 150 million Tik Tok users. In Canada, 26% of all adults use Tik Tok. This rises to 76% for all Canadian adults between 18 and 24. I do not use Tik Tok.

The big concern is privacy issues, security issues and data sharing. We all have experienced this. You ‘like’ something on a social media site and next day you start seeing ads relating to the thing you ‘liked’.

While there is concern relating to the above identified issues for all three media sites identified above, there is particular concern with Tik Tok. This is because of Tik Tok’s relationship with Communist China. An internet search of this issue will see articles about how the Chinese government is moving away from conquest in the battlefield to conquest of the mind, of the individual. As I said, 150 million Americans use Tik Tok. That means the Chinese government potentially has data on 150 million Americans.

The US congress is currently looking at banning Tik Tok completely from the US. Tik Tok CEO Shou Zi Chew, testified before a House Committee earlier this week. He was grilled for over five hours. An unprecedented thing occurred with this particular Congress. Both Republicans and Democrats were on the same side regarding privacy, security and data sharing concerns. Tik Tok users, on the other hand are not happy at the prospect of Tik Tok being taken away from them.

This story is far from over. The courts will get involved. Tik Tok will be around in Canada and the States for a while. Let’s see.