TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is a unique case of a Chinese software company that shines around the world, gaining millions of new users every day. However, within a span of just a month, he was scolded by authorities in Italy, Australia and the US. The reasons are different, but they all revolve around the same theme: the privacy of data.
We’re not going to defend anyone’s disdain for privacy, but come and go, in what idyllic garden don’t technology companies access their users’ data?
It is (almost) agreed that TikTok’s success is due to artificial intelligence technology being able to know its user so well as to always deliver the next most relevant video to that person. The result of the equation is an addictive stream of videos – in the literal sense of the word.
For example, in Italy, local regulators criticized Chinese apps for asking their users to have too much access, such as contact lists and installed apps.
In Australia, a local company reported that the software queries the user’s location “several times an hour” in order to always provide the most targeted advertising.
In the United States, the criticism was due to the fact that some of the data of US users – which are hosted on servers in the US, registered – is consulted by Chinese authorities.
In all cases, reasons are sought to limit or at least hinder the expansion of TikTok in these markets.
The ultimate excuse for a ban on TikTok in the West is that under Chinese law, a local tech may be required to share information with their country’s government.
Ultimately, the dreaded communists in Beijing may appropriate the sensitive data of young Westerners, who record funny dances with the app, for subversive purposes.
Irony aside, in fact, the success of TikTok – and Chinese big tech in general – represents an asset that could potentially be exploited by the Chinese government.
But until then, such data is not safe from falling into the hands of authoritarian governments when collected by Google, Amazon or Facebook, as the Edward Snowden revelations in 2013 taught us.
The objective fact is that, under the guise of privacy protection, Western regulators are looking for ways to limit China’s economic expansion.
In the face of all the allegations, ByteDance responded that it respects the laws of each country, that it enforces rules to protect its users, etc.
But it doesn’t matter.
From a Chinese perspective, the bad news is that Chinese technology has a long way to go before it can compete freely in Western markets.
The good news is that they won’t stop vying for your spot.
2004, South Korean economist ha-jun Chang Published “Kicking the Ladder”, a study in which he demonstrates by A+B, how developed countries pressure developing countries to adopt policies that ultimately aim to position poorer countries. In.., poverty,
Chang Tells how manyAdvice“Given to the poor by rich nations, they themselves were not followed in their development process. In other words: the rich enforce the rules they themselves have violated Power develop and they do so with the tacit aim of preventing the rise of emerging countries.
principle of Chang can be applied sweetly to the resistance imposed on large by various western countries take Sugar.
