ByteDance has scaled down its Indian operations, essentially withdrawing from the country since the ban.įacebook and Twitter have been banned in Iran since 2009 amid disputed elections and mass protests, limiting public government opposition. However, in June 2020 the Indian government banned TikTok, along with 58 other mobile apps, citing “activities…prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.” The move was seen as retaliation by the Indian government to clashes between Indian and Chinese forces at the Himalayan border. The app supported multiple regional languages, making it accessible to many people in the country.
When TikTok launched in India in 2016, the country became one of Bytedance’s biggest markets outside of China: Data published in April 2020 showed that 30% of TikTok’s downloads came from India. The Chinese state owns a stake in the Bytedance subsidiary that controls its domestic Chinese social media and information platforms. Douyin features restrictions such as blocks on international content and limits on children’s usage.
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Instead users can download a twin app, Douyin, which was also developed by Bytedance. In 2017, WeChat unveiled plans for virtual ID cards that would be recognized by the state.Īlthough video-sharing app TikTok was developed by Chinese company Bytedance, it is not available in China. WeChat has a monopoly on user data, including mini-apps to pay bills, book doctors appointments and file police reports. The app has been subsidized by the government since its creation in 2011, and is obliged to share users’ data with the state. WeChat, a multi-purpose messaging system developed by Tencent, is the widely used alternative in China. Meta’s messaging platform Whatsapp and its photo- and video-sharing app Instagram are also blocked. China’s restriction of foreign media platforms and censorship of non-governmental material has been dubbed the Great Firewall of China. Meta-owned Facebook and Twitter have been blocked in China since 2009, as part of a government crackdown against activists following deadly riots in Xinjiang province. While Nigerians can now access Twitter without using a virtual private network (VPN), a number of other countries continue to block access to mainstream social media sites. Months before the ban, Twitter chose Ghana as the location of its first African office, overlooking the continent’s biggest market, Nigeria. 13 after it secured Twitter’s commitment to opening a local office, appointing a head for its business in the country and paying domestic taxes.