Mimansa kala

How was banning Tiktok in India a correct step

Academic Writing (ACDW101) Section N Term 2

Professor Michael Burns

News Connection

On June 29, the Indian government proclaimed that it would hinder 59 Chinese applications,

including TikTok, referring to worries about public security and information protection

(Vesteinsson).

As per a report distributed by China's state-run media The Global Times, ByteDance - the parent

organization of the TikTok and Helo applications could lose up to $6 billion (₹45k crore) after

the Indian government decision to boycott them referring to worries about protection and public

security of the nation (Nandi).

So, what do you think was banning Tiktok a correct step taken by the Indian government or was

it an injustice to people whose major income depended on this?

Background

TikTok was already Musical.ly, where individuals would transfer lip-synchronize recordings. In

2018, a Chinese tech organization, ByteDance, gained Musical.ly and combined it with its own

lip-synchronizing application, known as Douyin; the outcome was TikTok (Rocque).

number of youngsters to web notoriety. The application was anything but a short-term, easy

achievement. In 2018 alone, ByteDance spent nearly $1 billion on promotions and tiktok began

picking up a lot of downloads (Gayton).

Stance

I strongly believe that Tiktok possess a threat to the nation. It is not good for the nation culturally

socially and also hinders the privacy of our nation

Counterpoint

But there are certain sections of people who believe that this has been a misfortune for Indian

clients. Notwithstanding its heap defects, Titok’s predominance of Indian web-based media was

an almost unalloyed useful for a large number of the less wealthy individuals who delighted in it

(Pahwa). In a nation or in a profoundly defined society that has different cultures and different

dialects Tiktok was one of the medium to bound them together and make people rise above a

considerable lot of India's cultural partitions. Some sections of people also argued that TikTok

was a libertarian ointment in a nation where the greater part of the population lives in poverty

and 5 percent lives in outrageous destitution, where in excess of a fourth of individuals are

unskilled, where different characterizations outside your ability to control may disservice you all

through life (Pahwa).I do value their counterpoints on the banning of tiktok in India but still

believe that there are double the number of limitations than achievement.
Rebuttal

The point made by some sections of people that Tiktok bounds people together culturally then I

would like to bring some points to their notice. An investigation by a Delhi-based digital lab,

Voyager Infosec, into more than 30,000 clips circulated this week suggests a set pattern of

targeted disinformation campaign aimed at the Indian Muslim community (DelhiApril 3 et al.)

Also, ByteDance's status as a Chinese organization prompts awkward oversight of substance

considered "inappropriate", TikTok's calculation knows your preferences better than your own

mom, and the young generations are by and large left overpowered with the shocking mix of

unrealistic, sexualized and racist substance pushed by the application. First Tiktok promoted

divide in different religions and also influenced the youth towards a wrong path (McGowan).

Now coming to the point that it was a source of earning for the poor then I would like to

highlight few points regarding this. The top priority for an app like TikTok is to grow and retain

its user base. To keep the videos attractive and entertaining; subjectively unattractive, poor and

disabled people are pushed to the bottom of the pile. These actions paint those in charge at

TikTok as hypocritical. They wish for their app to be seen as a bastion of self-expression and
creativity, where anything goes, but at the same time stifle anything that reminds people of the

real world. Not everyone is pretty, well-off or living in a democratic society (McGowan).

Big to small

Indian web biological system is vote based in nature and a whirlwind of applications or locales

run Indian gadgets consistently. By obstructing some ineffective application which was modest

wellsprings of amusement India has not abstained the progression of News or Information from

the rest of the world to India. TIKTOK has in excess of 120 Million Indian clients and they were

really making the substance for the world and not observing a significant part of the worldwide

substance in any case.

Evidence 1

So, one day I decided to download Tiktok and the things I discovered were pretty dangerous. So,

when I tried to download something the app asked for permissions for audio, camera recording

and accessing my SD card. Now you might argue that asking these permissions is common and

is asked in lot of apps but my problem is with something that Tiktok doesn’t ask permission for

but still access it i.e. location.

Evidence 2
The application gathers a scope of data, for example, area information and your web address, as

indicated by its protection strategy, and it tracks the kind of gadget you are utilizing to get to its

platform. It stores your browsing and search history and also the content of messages you trade

with others on the application (Li)

When I went through the app permissions in settings; location was not mentioned anywhere.

Also, while selecting the language I tried to specify my preferences; I selected English videos

only still in my feed I saw videos in my regional languages also. Now the question is how does

Tiktok know your location? Therefore, just as a precaution I turned off the location but then apps

like google maps or Arogya set can’t work without location, these apps need you to manually

keep it on, so these important apps also can’t work without you giving them permission. I am in

Pune and I know Hindi and Marathi; how does Tiktok gets to know about it?

Evidence 3

Now if you want to cheat your location there is a very simple trick called VPN, the Virtual

Private Network. I used that and I changed my location to USA, and as a result I was successful

in tricking the apps like YouTube and Hotstar; YouTube started showing me adds of USA and

Hotsar stopped working and showed the notification that it seems you are travelling. But you

won’t believe when I go to Tiktok I see all the same videos and nothing has changed. So how is

Tiktok doing this?

important information goes through our sim card and u can imagine how sinister this is. Don’t

you think taking out your regional information from the sim card is an over skill and unnecessary

for a video sharing app and the worst part about it is that the app doesn’t give any warning about

it. Further I got to know that Tiktok uses http severs not https severs and http servers are not

secured and they can be hacked.

Evidence 4

The biggest problem with Tiktok is artificial intelligence, the BYTEDANCE- Titok’s parent

company is an artificial intelligence company. Their real product is not a content creation

platform rather it is an algorithm. China wanted to be a superpower in AI by 2030. Whenever

you are watching videos in Tiktok you are constantly feeding information in their survey.

The public authority has likewise explained that the Computer Emergency Response Team

(CERT-IN) has additionally gotten many "representations from residents with respect to the

security of information and risk to privacy affecting upon public request issues (Jun 29 et al.)”

In a speech this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said all "untrusted" Chinese apps should

be removed from U.S. app stores. “With parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok,

WeChat and others are significant threats to the personal data of American citizens,” not to

mention tools for content censorship, Pompeo said. Further, the release likewise guarantees that

the "move will defend the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users. This decision is

a targeted move to ensure the safety and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace (Jun 29 et al.)”
Reurgency

The first list of banned apps came out on June 29, 2020 with 59 apps on it. TikTok, ShareIt, UC

Browser, Shein, Likee, and CamScanner were all on it, the ban was seen as a response to India-

China clashes in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh at the time (Dhapola). Another factor that had an

impact in the prohibiting of these applications has all the earmarks of being a suggestion of the

Ministry of Home Affairs. According to the service's delivery, it was sent a thorough proposal

for obstructing these applications by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center which is

essential for the Ministry of Home Affairs. (Jun 29 et al).

According to an official statement, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology

(MeITY) said the apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India,

security of state and public order.” They were all banned under Section 69A of the Information

Technology (IT) Act. The other two lists of banned apps also used this same section of the IT

Act (Dhapola).

Call to action
There is always a sunrise after a sunset likewise there is always something good planned for us

when something bad happens. Banning of Tiktok made many people disheartened but it was for

the good and Instagram reels came up as a blessing for those people
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DelhiApril 3, Ankit Kumar New, et al. “Surge in TikTok Videos Aimed at Misleading Indian

Muslims over Coronavirus Precautions.” India Today,

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/surge-in-tiktok-videos-aimed-at-misleading-indian-

muslims-over-coronavirus-precautions-1662930-2020-04-03. Accessed 26 Dec. 2020.

Dhapola, Shruti. “Year of the Banned: TikTok to PUBG Mobile, All the Apps That Stopped Working

in India in 2020.” The Indian Express, 24 Dec. 2020,

https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/year-of-the-banned-tiktok-to-

pubg-mobile-all-the-apps-that-stopped-working-in-india-in-2020-7118174/.

Gayton, Christina. “The Origins of TikTok.” Medium, 18 July 2020,

https://medium.com/@christinagayton/the-origins-of-tiktok-5efa7da4b3e6.
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Apps Including Tik Tok, UC Browser, Others | India Business News - Times of India.” The

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mobile-apps-including-tik-tok-uc-browser-others/articleshow/76694828.cms. Accessed 26 Dec.

2020.

Li, Robert McMillan, Liza Lin and Shan. “TikTok User Data: What Does the App Collect and Why

Are U.S. Authorities Concerned?” Wall Street Journal, 8 July 2020. www.wsj.com,

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-user-data-what-does-the-app-collect-and-why-are-u-s-

authorities-concerned-11594157084.

McGowan, Luke Durac. “How TikTok Is Influencing Minds and Changing Culture.” Medium, 26

June 2020, https://medium.com/the-innovation/how-tiktok-is-influencing-minds-and-changing-

culture-123c532a764b.

Pahwa, Nitish. “What Indians Lost When The Government Banned TikTok.” The Wire,

https://thewire.in/tech/india-tiktok-ban-government. Accessed 24 Dec. 2020.

---. “What Indians Lost When Their Government Banned TikTok.” Slate Magazine, 7 Aug. 2020,

https://slate.com/technology/2020/08/tiktok-india-ban-china.html.

Rocque, Starrene Rhett. “How TikTok Quickly Became the Breeding Ground for Tomorrow’s Pop

Stars.” Teen Vogue, https://www.teenvogue.com/story/tiktok-what-is-it. Accessed 24 Dec. 2020.

Vesteinsson, Kian. India’s TikTok Ban Tightens the Government’s Grasp on the Internet.

https://thediplomat.com/2020/07/indias-tiktok-ban-tightens-the-governments-grasp-on-the-

internet/. Accessed 24 Dec. 2020.

Yadav, Lalit. “TikTok Ban Is Good for India.” Times of India Blog, 9 July 2020,

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/ecopolity/tiktok-ban-is-good-for-india-22926/.
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