The impact of TikTok’s prohibition in other nations may forecast the future for the U.S.

 

On April 24, President Joe Biden signed a law. It says that if the company that owns TikTok, called ByteDance, doesn't sell the app, TikTok will be banned in the U.S. ByteDance has nine months to sell TikTok. If they need more time, they can have 90 more days. After this time, people won't be able to find TikTok in app stores anymore.

TikTok plans to fight this decision in court, and it's likely to be a lengthy legal process. However, several countries have already banned the app, and ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, hasn't been able to bring it back. These bans have affected ByteDance's business in those countries, as well as TikTok creators and startups that depend on the app.

This is what's happening with those bans in other countries.

• India: This ban on TikTok is widely recognized because India is one of the largest consumer markets globally. In June 2020, the Indian government prohibited the short video app, along with several other Chinese apps, due to national security concerns. ByteDance's other popular app, Helo, was also included in the list of banned apps at that time.

• Afghanistan: In 2022, the Taliban in Afghanistan decided to block TikTok and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) because they felt these apps were giving young people the wrong ideas. Despite the ban, many content creators in Afghanistan found ways to keep making TikTok videos by using VPNs. These creators wanted to share their videos with people outside Afghanistan. Reports suggest that anywhere from 325,000 to 2 million people in Afghanistan were using TikTok before the ban.

• Uzbekistan: In Uzbekistan, there are rules about using TikTok that started in July 2021. In 2022, the government suggested stopping TikTok altogether because some people were using special tools called VPNs to get around the rules and still use the app.

• Senegal: In August 2023, TikTok was banned in Senegal after opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was sentenced. People had been using the app to express their disagreement, which led to the ban. Later in October, the government asked ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, to take action.

• Somalia: TikTok, Telegram, and the betting site 1xBet got banned in Somalia, just like in Senegal. Somali officials said these apps and sites shared scary stuff and wrong information with people.

• Kyrgyzstan: In August 2023, TikTok faced trouble in Kyrgyzstan as the authorities banned the platform. They believed TikTok was harmful to children's health and growth. The country's culture ministry expressed concerns that teenagers were attempting to replicate risky videos, putting their lives in danger.

• Nepal: In November 2023, Nepal decided to ban TikTok because the government felt that the app was causing problems with how people interacted and behaved together. They were worried that it was affecting families and society as a whole. The government was also concerned about an increase in cybercrimes happening through TikTok. Local news reported that there had been 1,600 cases related to TikTok over the past four years. A report from BBC Media Action in 2023 showed that TikTok was the third most popular social media platform in the country, after YouTube and Facebook.

• In Iran, many big social networks, like TikTok, are not allowed. But we're not sure exactly when this ban started. Also, countries like the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Belgium, the EU, New Zealand, and Australia don't let TikTok be used on official devices.

Impact of the bans:

Multiple accounts have detailed how the TikTok ban affected creators who depended on the platform for exposure and income. Additionally, many small businesses utilized TikTok to advertise their brands in various ways.

India's decision to ban TikTok was significant, prompting Instagram to swiftly introduce Reels as an alternative platform in India. Subsequently, Meta (formerly Facebook) launched Reels in the U.S. a few months later. YouTube also joined the trend by introducing Shorts in India.

However, TikTok’s ban led to the emergence of several new local short video apps. Companies like Twitter and Google-supported ShareChat introduced Moj; Verse Innovation (the parent company of news aggregator DailyHunt) unveiled Josh; Times Internet launched MX Takatak and later merged it with Moj in 2022; advertising company InMobi introduced Roposo, while other competitors like Mitron, Chingari, and Trell also entered the market to vie for users’ attention.

In November 2023, developers in Nepal launched a TikTok alternative named Ramailo, but it didn't last long.

With the emergence of various apps, content creators have been compelled to share their content across multiple platforms. However, these platforms may not prioritize short videos like TikTok does, and their recommendation algorithms may differ, leading creators to lose their audience. A similar scenario could unfold in the U.S., prompting creators to seek out new platforms for their content, if only to prepare for the possibility of TikTok's decline due to a potential ban.

After India banned TikTok, ByteDance had to reduce what it was doing there. This year, the company's music app, Resso, was also stopped in India after the government told app stores to remove it.

Apart from how it affects creators, people who stand up for digital rights are also saying that when apps like TikTok get banned, it limits free speech. These arguments might come up in the U.S. as well, as the government and ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, could end up in legal fights. Last year, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said that India did something very important by banning TikTok in 2020. He mentioned that the U.S. should also do the same to get rid of harmful apps.