Tiktok • News

The Chinese app TikTok is popular all over the world. Read all the important and latest news from the China.Table editorial team.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a short video app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It has more than one billion active users worldwide and is thus one of the best-known and most successful apps.

The app’s concept revolves around uploading short videos of people dancing accompanied by voice-overs. The app is particularly popular among young people. It was developed by the Chinese company ByteDance. The company bought the app musical.ly in 2017 and combined both apps in one single application, whereupon TikTok became known in Germany.

What is the difference between Douyin and TikTok?

TikTok is called Douyin in China (short for Douyin short video 抖音短视频 Dǒuyīn duǎnshìpín). However, not only the names but also the contents of the two apps differ.

While Douyin content is subject to censorship mechanisms by the Chinese government and is thus purely focused on entertainment, TikTok is the global version, supposedly without censoring politically sensitive content. The international version of the app is banned in China. However, censorship mechanisms have been discovered in TikTok as well. The app has been found to hide keywords, for example from the LGBTQIA+ community, which limits the reach of videos containing these terms.

What links TikTok and the Chinese government?

During Donald Trump‘s administration, TikTok was blacklisted by the US. The reason for this was the accusation of the Chinese government exercising influence over the app. Although, the US did not end up banning the application, it was revealed shortly afterward that the Chinese government itself owns shares in the company. Thus, the possibility to exert pressure on the company by the Chinese government exists. Furthermore, due to the tech crackdown by Beijing, private tech companies like ByteDance must watch their image and comply with the demands of the Chinese government.

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All news and posts of our editorial team on the topic

The leadership in Beijing is countering accusations that it is pressuring Chinese companies to hand over personal user data collected abroad. “China has never and will not require companies or individuals to collect or provide data located in a foreign country, in a way that violates local law,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.“The US government […] continue reading →

The US government has demanded that the Chinese technology group ByteDance sell its shares of the short video app TikTok. The aim is to split off the US version of TikTok from its Chinese parent. Otherwise, it could face a ban in the USA, Reuters reported.Due to the close ties TikTok and its parent ByteDance […] continue reading →

Following the EU Commission and the European Parliament, the Belgian government has now also banned the use of the app TikTok on staff phones. Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo explained that the National Security Council had warned of the risks of data collection through TikTok and the possible cooperation with Chinese intelligence services. “Therefore, […] continue reading →

US President Joe Biden is backing a bill that would give the White House significant control over the business of the Chinese video app TikTok in the United States. It allows for a ban on the app as well as a forced sale to an investor. The law exists only as a draft so far. […] continue reading →

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued rules against “extortionate practices through mobile apps“. According to the regulations issued on Monday, practices like automatic subscription renewals without user consent will be punished more severely in the future.Furthermore, Beijing plans to regulate short video apps more closely, primarily in an attempt to counter addictive […] continue reading →

The EU Commission has prohibited the use of the Chinese video app TikTok on business cell phones of EU officials and MEPs for the time being. Staff received instructions to that effect on Thursday, Commission spokeswoman Sonya Gospodinova confirmed. The ban is said to be temporary. However, Gospodinova did not explain under what conditions the […] continue reading →

Tiktok CEO Shou Zi Chew has met high-ranking EU officials and campaigned for more trust in the company. The talks between the TikTok CEO and EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in Brussels included detailed plans on how the Chinese video app is preparing for new liability and security rules for digital platforms (the so-called Digital […] continue reading →

The social media platform TikTok, operated by Chinese company Bytedance, plans to allow its employees in several countries, including China, to access data of European, Swiss and British users. This is according to the company’s new privacy policy, which is set to come into effect on Dec. 2.Countries, where European user data can be accessed […] continue reading →

The social media platform TikTok, operated by the Chinese company ByteDance, continues to hide comments and posts in Germany that include specific terms. This was revealed by investigations conducted by Tagesschau.de, WDR and NDR. In the test with a total of 70 words and word combinations, at least 20 comment elements were reportedly discovered, which […] continue reading →

TikTok collects user data it does not need, censors content Beijing does not like, and connects to servers in the People's Republic of China. Nevertheless, the company sticks to its claim of being completely independent of the Chinese parent company ByteDance. In order to credibly convey this, internal guidelines give PR employees an arsenal of standard statements. continue reading →

The British Parliament has closed its TikTok account over privacy concerns. MPs feared that TikTok’s Chinese parent company could pass on data to the government in Beijing. MPs had previously written to the speakers of the House of Commons and House of Lords.According to Sky News, a Tory MP explained that managers at TikTok could […] continue reading →

Employees at TikTok’s Berlin office can form a works council despite headwinds from management. This was reported by Nikkei Asia concerning the trade union Ver.di, which supports the project. According to the report, 102 of the approximately 200 Berlin employees met mid-July to appoint an election committee at Ver.di’s national headquarters. The actual election is […] continue reading →

Chinese short video platform TikTok has postponed a controversial change in the handling of user data at the last moment. According to the Italian data protection authority, on Wednesday TikTok wanted to use the data available on users’ devices for personalized advertising without their consent. Now the group postponed the implementation of the plans. The […] continue reading →

A high-ranking representative of a US authority has urged Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their respective app stores. Brendan Carr, Commissioner of the FCC, the agency responsible for communications, has sent a letter to the companies pointing out that TikTok would violate data security regulations.The application does not comply with the app store […] continue reading →

The video app Douyin (also known as TikTok in the West) will broadcast the 2022 World Cup live in China. Its parent company ByteDance was chosen as a partner by the China Media Group, which owns the state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), among others, as business portal Caixin reported. The China Media Group wants […] continue reading →

The social media platform TikTok, operated by Chinese company ByteDance, does not show comments and posts in Germany that include certain words. This is reported by German news channel Tagesschau, referring to a self-conducted test. According to the report, journalists tested 100 words or word combinations from different accounts. The result: 19 words were not […] continue reading →

Zhang Jun warns of not only paying attention to superficial phenomena of China's economy. The economist explains what underlies China's often overlooked irrepressible dynamism. continue reading →

Douyin, the Chinese version of the short video app TikTok, is restricting the time children under 14 are allowed to use the app. In the future, the time should only be 40 minutes per day. Between 10 PM and 6 AM., young people will then no longer be able to access Douyin at all. Douyin […] continue reading →