Bytedance has been blessed with the success of TikTok, however, success brings critics, political battles with Donald Trump, rebuke from Police Forces worldwide, and accusations that stalkers, weirdos are grooming kids on the portal and allegations they don't care about user safety at all. Aside from that, it's going great.
TikTok has risen quickly over the past year becoming a cultural phenomenon. TikTok's Chinese ownership has also aroused the concerns of United States lawmakers, who voiced worries both about potential censorship on the platform and about how user data is stored and secured. US Service personnel are banned from TikTok. Of course, China Tech is on the march and American supremacy is visibly slipping for the first time, after 8 decades.
Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have lengthy and deliberately opaque guidelines but make the effort at least. TikTok needs to catch up, especially with their jealous American competitors watching keenly, like bullies at the school gate, an apt metaphor. There is growing scrutiny over censorship, its Chinese ownership from US and EU regulators. Promises of more transparency led to Bytedance introducing the new Community Guidelines out earlier in 2020.
Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have lengthy and deliberately opaque guidelines but make the effort at least. TikTok needs to catch up, especially with their jealous American competitors watching keenly, like bullies at the school gate, an apt metaphor. There is growing scrutiny over censorship, its Chinese ownership from US and EU regulators. Promises of more transparency Bytedance introduced the new Community Guidelines out earlier in 2020.
Tiktok California planned to invite outside experts to review some of its policies, in the end, it was led by TikTok teams based in California. A pretty low bar was set with parameters no doubt set in advance by China.
US Laws in this area are not as prohibitive as European laws. US rules and lack of enforcement are meant to keep America great not get in the way of American enterprise. US Laws are much better applied when the offender is Chinese, Trump has tried to force Bytedance into selling TikTok to ORACLE. The EU and Britain in particular plan to be much rougher on TikTok in 2021, Britain is the world leader is starting to push social media about. TikTok new European office in Dublin opened only weeks before COVID 19 lockdown.
Everyone we talk too is very concerned about their kids using TikTok so much and reports of inappropriate usage, weirdos and perverts are hourly.
That said, TikTok’s Community Guidelines follow the lead of the other social media companies and go even further in some instances. Hate speech is defined as attacking or inciting violence against people based on characteristics like their sexual orientation, gender identity, or immigration status. This includes “promoting or justifying exclusion, segregation, or discrimination” against certain groups. Ideologies like white nationalism, which Facebook only recently decided it would no longer allow on its platform after a backlash.
While many platforms ban depicting illegal acts, TikTok specifically prohibits what it calls “underage delinquent behaviour,” like minors consuming alcohol, drugs, or tobacco. Videos of teens using vaping devices from companies like Juul have become a meme on TikTok, but the new rules indicate it might not be for this world much longer. It&rsquo's not clear how TikTok will handle drinking and smoking age laws that vary from country to country, or jurisdictions where marijuana is legal.
TikTok now bans “the depiction, trade, or promotion of firearms,” except in circumstances like when they’re carried by officials like police officers, or “used in a safe and controlled environment such as a shooting range.” The policy appears to be stricter than that of either YouTube or Facebook, which ban selling guns and instructing people how to make them but not their mere depiction.
Users who break the rules will have their content deleted and receive a notification that they broke TikToks Community Guidelines. But the company won’t tell people which specific policy was violated, leaving them to interpret for themselves where they crossed the line. TikTok hasn’t made any additional announcements about changes to moderation staffing or other enforcement mechanisms in addition to its new Community Guidelines.
TikTok cleverly tapped into and released kids creativity when it devised a simple fun quick way to set things to music online. Emphasis on kids, youth, creativity in the funniest way possible. But it is not all lip-synching clips, politics, comedy and real-life commentary that has found a home too mainly because TikTok is the best way to find an audience. "Ultimately, the platform is built to support our users and their diverse thoughts, experiences, and interests," said TikTok in a recent blog
TikTok faces a lot of challenges to manager its huge success as well as competition from its powerful competitors including Snapchat, and Facebook's 'Instagram' and 'WhatsApp'. American lawmakers want clarification about how (and if) US citizens data is mined, harvested, used by the Chinese Government.
TikTok will continue to censor political coverage of Chinese upheaval, Hong Kong, internal censorship. EU regulators will be keen to show off in 2021 and try putting TikTok managers to the sword. But until they default Profile settings to private and enforce 13 years of age, nothing will change.
The incident underscores the challenges ahead for TikTok. Last month, the company released its transparency report, which discloses requests for TikTok data from governments, but doesn’t reveal data about how the company has enforced its own policies. Now that its new Community Guidelines are in place, users will be watching to see how well it implements them. Challenging times ahead.
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Note - TikTok is not available in mainland China, India and numerous other countries Snapchat users are very loyal and very engaged. Snapchat explained
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