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HomeTop NewsTikTok ban: Ruins many small time Indian artists

TikTok ban: Ruins many small time Indian artists

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TikTok, Chinese Apps, India bans 59 Chinese Apps, TikTokers, TikTok Stars, Ban on TikTok, Faisal Shaikh, Jannat ZubairGopal, having many followers and millions of likes on his TikTok account said, I make small entertaining videos which has huge following and likening. I used to feel like a mega star of this small -platform. Of course, TikTok gave me identity and also financial support. Well the ban has ruined all probabilities but anything for India is fine “Jan bhi de sakte hai” (I can also give my life)

Government of India believes that the decision to disallow certain apps is a targeted move to ensure safety and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace. There are many complaints alleging theft of user data and violations of user privacy.

“Seriously concerned” about the Indian government blocking 59 Chinese apps and firmly opposed such action. India’s move was “discriminatory” and “runs against fair and transparent practices,” the Chinese embassy issued in a statement. It also goes against the general trend of international trade and E-commerce, and is not conducive to consumer interests and the market competition in India,” Chinese Embassy spokesperson Ji Rong said. “India’s measure, selectively and discriminatorily aims at certain Chinese apps on ambiguous and far-fetched grounds, runs against fair and transparent procedure requirements, abuses national security exceptions, and suspects of violating the WTO rules.

Expressing her thoughts on the same, Malaika Arora took to her Instagram stories to share screengrab of the news and wrote, “Best news I have heard in lockdown… finally we will not be subjected to people’s ridiculous videos”.

Bollywood celebs like Shilpa Shetty, Jacqueline Fernandez, Alaya F, Sara Ali Khan and others were regulars on the app.

TikTok, WeChat, UC Browser and two Xiaomi apps were among the apps blocked by the government over national security and privacy concerns, two weeks after the Ladakh clash with China in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the line of duty.

China said the apps had a large number of users in India and “Have been operating strictly in accordance with Indian laws and regulations”. The ban, said the Chinese Embassy statement, would affect not only the employment of local Indian workers who supported the apps, but also the interests of Indian users and the employment and livelihoods of many creators and entrepreneurs.

The Ministry of Information Technology said the apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order. “The companies have been invited to offer clarifications before a government panel, which will decide whether the ban can be removed or will stay.

TikTok said it was in the process of complying with the government order and “continued to comply with data privacy and security requirements under Indian law”.

India is the biggest driver of the TikTok app and the ban has badly hit its parent company Bytedance.t is early days yet, but by all accounts, the move to ban 59 popular Chinese apps — like TikTok, ShareIt, UCBrowser, etc — seems to be a well-thought-out move. What is, though, odd is that if some of these apps were clandestinely stealing Indian data, as has been alleged, why were they not banned earlier? Unlike the delays in clearing imports from China, or say an increase in import duties on Chinese imports which hurts Indian importers or manufacturers who use these inputs, the ban on the apps will hurt a lot less. Certainly, a ban on Tik Tok will hurt those artists who have made a career based on TikTok videos, but the ban is likely to hurt the Chinese more. Around 30% of TikTok’s user-base, according to Reuters which, in turn, cites SensorTower data, comes from India; cutting off this base will hit the valuation of its parent ByteDance. ByteDance is estimated to be worth around $110 billion and also owns Helo whose users are all from India. Bigo Live is a competitor to TikTok, a third of its users are Indian and its parent, Bigo, is worth around $2 billion. Similarly, UC Browser has a 12-13% market share of the browser market in India, making it the second-largest way to access the internet after Google’s Chrome.

Apart from the fact that it is difficult to find out what the country of origin is for many products — is a Samsung or an Apple phone ‘Made’ in India genuinely Indian if the parts come from overseas, including China? — If it turns out that a large number of products sold online are Chinese in origin, at some point, this can lead to calls for stronger action. Indeed, as it happens, most of the firms where Chinese firms have invested have other investors as well, like Japan’s SoftBank for instance. The big Chinese investments that come to mind, apart from Alibaba’s investment in Paytm, and $500 million in Snapdeal — along with SoftBank and Foxconn — are Tencent’s $400 million in Ola, $700 million in Flipkart, $175 million in Hike Messenger, and $145 million in Practo. Indeed, a research paper by Gateway House (bit.ly/2ywFwK1) estimates China has invested $4 billion in Indian tech startups, resulting in 18 of India’s top 30 unicorns having Chinese funding. Equally, if the ban is to give Indian app developers a better shot at capturing the market by developing as good or better substitutes, the government policy on startups has to be a lot more encouraging than it is at the moment.

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