Hello everyone. As you may have heard, the US government, specifically Congress, has been trying to push to ban TikTok from the US and not just in government-owned devices. But why? Today, I will explain and show you the bigger picture. A word of warning. We'll be going down a geopolitical rabbit hole, one that certain people may not respond nicely to, have difficulty comprehending, or simply ignore it out of stubborness and denial because it does not agree with their own views.

Background and History

First, a background and some context. What is TikTok and where did it come from? TikTok was formed as a result of merging a number of apps such as A.me/Douyin, Flipgram, and Musical.ly.

Douyin (抖音), formerly known as A.me, was launched in China in late 2016 by a Chinese company named Bytedance. Keep this company's name in mind. In the early days, Douyin was like Vine. Both platforms allowed up 15 seconds of video. Today, Douyin is basically the Chinese version of TikTok. I'll cover the differences later in the blog in a section down below.

Around February 2017, Bytedance bought an app called Flipgram. Flipgram was similar to Vine at the time, with a focus on 15 second videos known as Flips but Flipgram was far less known.

Anyone around 2014-2017 may remember Musical.ly and may remember the countless (cringy) lip-syncing videos in it. For those who don't remember, Musical.ly was another short video app like Vine and Flipgram, with a focus on 15 second videos and with more focus on lip-sync music videos. Around November 2017, Musical.ly was bought by ByteDance. Bytedance then combined Douyin, Flipgram, and Musical.ly into the TikTok we all know today. TikTok combines a number (but not all) of the features from those 3 apps I mentioned into what TikTok is today.

Within less than a year at around August 2018, Bytedance merged consolidated all users from Musical.ly. Any "veteran" or long time TikTok users were most likely from Musical.ly.

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This is where the geopoltical rabbit hole I mentioned earlier begins. This is also where I go into details and the reasons why US Congress is trying to ban it.

Privacy and Security

If you paid attention to what I said earlier, I mentioned Bytedance is a Chinese company. Well, what's the big deal? The big deal is that China and its laws are vastly from those like countries such as the US. In the US, you can say things like and not worry about the police or government going after you. But if you were in China and you said something like , let's just say it was nice knowing you. The point I'm trying to make is that you can't criticize the Chinese government while in China without facing severe consequences. As a result, the government there constantly watches its citizens and punishes anyone that criticizes it.

At this point, you might be wondering, how does this relate to TikTok? I'm getting there. To ensure the government there cracks down on anyone who criticizes it, they pass a number of laws ranging from creating governmental bodies and organizations to enforcing the government's authoritarian rule and laws that forces anyone there to cooperate with the government. I will be focusing on that last part.

In 2017, China passed the Cybersecurity Law. This law basically forces network operators (anyone who works in Internet-related services and infrastructure) to store data in China. It does not matter where that data came from. The law also allows the government to perform checks on that whenever it wants. Here's a link to the English version of the entire law. I would suggest reading Articles 28, 35, and 37 carefully.

Later in 2017, China pass another similar law known as the National Intelligence Law. This is basically a broader version of the Cybersecurity Law I said earlier. Basically, this one forces all companies and organizations operating in China to hand over any data to the government when requested, no matter how the data is obtained, and as long as that company or organization has access to said data. You can read the English version of the entire law here. I would suggest reading Articles 7, 10, and 18 carefully.

Guess where Bytedance's headquarters are? Beijing, China. Well, can't they just say no? If you can't criticize the government there while in China, what makes you think Bytedance will say no? Anyway, with these laws in mind, Bytedance will be forced to hand over any data it has access to if the government requests it. It may have already done so without our knowledge.

You might be thinking: "But I'm outside of China. Their laws don't affect me." It does. As I've said, it does not matter where the data came from or how it was obtained. As long as the company based in China has access to it, the government can obtain it. This makes those laws extrajudicial, meaning it can affect people outside of China.

"Okay, but the US government probably spies on us too." I can't say if that's true or not but remember how I said the government there cracks down on people who criticizes it? This means they will use every means possible to spy on its citizens. Keep in mind China is an authoritarian government, considering the way it cracks down on critics of its government. They're not just spying on Chinese citizens but people outside the country too. Forbes did a report on it back in December 2022 when it found out its journalists' locations were being tracked via IP address and Bytedance even later admitted it.

The main Forbes article
YouTube video of the Forbes article
YouTube video of Forbes explaining how Bytedance tracked Forbes' journalists

"Okay, I still don't care if an authoritarian government is spying on me and I haven't said anything against the government there. What else do I have to worry about?" Let me finish. I still need to cover one more subject. It may not affect you but it can affect other people, especially minors.

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Content and possible Propaganda Tool

Remember how I said Douyin (抖音) is basically the Chinese version of TikTok? So, what's different about it? First of all, Douyin has additional features that TikTok does not have. One feature is the ability to buy stuff directly in Douyin. Ever seen those sponsor videos on Amazon's main page? Douyin has plenty of those videos. Young people in China can make a living promoting certain products and again, you can buy stuff directly in Douyin. That's not what we're going to focus on. We're going to focus on what content TikTok offers versus what content Douyin offers.

When you think of TikTok content, what comes to mind? Most of you may think of countless and pointless dance videos or those stupid, asinine, and sometimes dangerous challenges (remember the Crate Challenge?). In Douyin, you won't find the latter kind of those of videos. Remember: China is an authoritarian government that cracks down on its citzens and even spies on people outside the country. Do you really think those kinds of dangerous challenges would pass the censorship? Of course not. So, what kind of videos does Douyin offer? Well, surprisingly not vastly different but still fairly different from TikTok. There are still dance videos but they're a bit more tame than its US counterparts (less butt shaking). As I've mentioned earlier, China censor its citizens. I'd like to focus on what kind of stuff would be censored in Douyin since that's easier to explain than listing all possible kinds of videos that Douyin has to offer.

Anything that promotes harm, danger, destruction, or chaos. For examples, the Milk Crate Challenge, the Devious Licks Challenge, and the Fire Challenge. Something like that would be squashed by the censors before it even becomes popular. You can read the entire law here. Minor Protection Law of the PRC.

Political stuff. As I've mentioned multiple times in this blog, if you criticize the government there, you'll face severe consequences and will likely disappear. Basically, anything that criticizes the government or anything that the government there considers politically sensitive, you will not find it on Douyin. Try looking up stuff such as Tiananmen June 1989 (天安门1989年6月), Falun Gong (法轮功), or Genocide in Xinjiang (新疆种族灭) on Douyin. I'll provide ways on how to download Douyin and how to watch videos on Douyin at the bottom of this section. CNN compares TikTok to Douyin. Yes, I used a CNN video to show how different Douyin is to TikTok.

Even greater censorship if you're under 14. In Douyin, minors that are under 14 are limited to watching videos to 40 minutes a day. No, this is not optional and it cannot be turned off. This feature is known as Youth Mode. That's not all. Content will be limited to science experiments, museum exhibitions, and history. TikTok does have a similar feature called Restricted Mode, which can be turned on or off by a parent. Unlike Douyin's Youth Mode, TikTok's Restricted Mode is far less strict, allowing time limits greater than 40 minutes and does not limit content to educational videos.

BBC's Article on Youth Mode.
CNET's Article on Youth Mode.
Bytedance's WeChat blog on Youth Mode. Warning: WeChat is owned by a Tencent, a Chinese company. Visit at your own risk:



The point I'm trying to make is that how is Bytedance able to crack down on harmful content on Douyin a lot better and faster than on TikTok? It says something about Bytedance when they allow dangerous challenges on TikTok for a few weeks but can immediate shut down those same dangerous challenges on Douyin.

If you have been paying attention to the news on US-China relationship for the past few years, then you know it's been declining. You may have heard of China wanting to invade a place called Taiwan. So what's the story behind that and how does this relate to TikTok? First, I need to give a brief history lesson. Basically, China had a civil war for most of the first half of the 1900s, the Communists won, the non-Communist fled to an island called Taiwan (officially known as the Republic of China), and now (the People's Republic of)/Communist China wants to finish the job by invading Taiwan. If you have been paying attention to the news, you may have heard of increased military drills near China from countries such as the US, China, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and many more. But why? China has been building up its military in the past decade or so, making illegal territorial claims in the South China Sea, and causing neighboring countries to worry and even be upset over the territorial claims. Some have commented that China is planning to invade Taiwan in the future and that the US and its allies could get involved. So, how does all this relate to TikTok? Well, in the event of a war in Taiwan, Bytedance could be ordered to promote anti-war content to discourage Americans and its allies and help China win the war. So, why should I care about Taiwan? First, they invented Boba Tea. Secondly, a microchip company called TSMC produces the most advanced microchips on the planet and they are based in Taiwan. If China invades Taiwan, say goodbye to the RTX 4090s Ti (or RTX 50 Series), the next iPhone, or the next flagship Samsung/Android phone. Losing TSMC means losing any next generation phone and computer hardware, possibly causing higher end hardware to be unavailable for a long time, and even set high-end hardware back by a decade.

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Closing

I know that was a lot of take in but I hate to tell you, that's just tip of the iceburg of the bigger picture. As someone who's been watching independent, non-state controlled news about China for over a decade, I've been following this news closely so I know what the bigger looks like. It's one massive rabbit hole that has caused rifts in my past friendships. Anyway, the point of this blog is to inform all of you the reason behind US Congress of wanting to ban TikTok and to show the bigger picture. It's not meant to change your views on TikTok. If you still want to keep using TikTok even reading all of this, then that's fine. If you don't, that's fine too. However, I would like all of you to respect each other's decision whether to use or not use TikTok and to be part of it or not. I have a real life friend who uses TikTok but despite that, I have never asked them to stop using them and respect their decision. I have asked them to keep me off their videos, which they respect. I know not everyone likes TikTok but please respect those who choose to use it as long as they're not causing any harm and for those who like TikTok, please respect those who choose not to use it. Don't be an asshole and cause an argument simply because you don't agree with their decision.

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Almost forgot. If you want to see Douyin yourself, you can use search "Douyin website" on your search engine. I won't link it here and you're gonna need to find a way to read Chinese. For Android users, there should be an APK that will allow you download it. I would suggest using a burner phone if possible.

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