TikTok, Trump, and the World’s Weirdest Love Triangle
A national weapon. A national threat. A political strategy.
The Tiktok-Trump saga is an epic case of how a naive start-up became the epitome of geo-political tug-of-war between world's 2 biggest powers.
That start-up marked a turning point in how we consume content globally.
ByteDance (parent of Tiktok) founded in 2012, launched a short video app - "Douyin" for Chinese market in 2016. The app named as TikTok for international market was launched in 2017.
In 2018, it was among the most downloaded app.
The growth was immense, establishing it among the top social media platforms.
- 5.24 billion people (63.9% of the global population) currently use social media worldwide, up more than double from 2.07 billion in 2015
- The average social media user engages with an average of 6.83 various social media platforms
- Globally, the average time a person spends on social media a day is 2 hours 21 minutes
- Globally, 46.6% of social media users are female, while the remaining 53.4% are male
- 2017 and 2018 were the highest growth years for social media companies with 21% and 15% gr. rate.
- Facebook is the leading social network with 3.07 billion monthly active users, followed by YouTube (2.5 billion), WhatsApp (2 billion), Instagram (2 billion), and TikTok (1.58 billion) - even after Tiktok being banned from India in 2020.
Source: Backlinko
2019 - TikTok faces scrutiny in the U.S. for data privacy and content moderation practices
"And, just as the deal was taking shape, Beijing made a quiet but monumental move. It updated its technology export control list for the first time since 2008
Crucially, the new list included technologies like "personalised information recommendation services based on data analysis."" - (Jayant Mundhra - Linkedin)
This algorithm is the very core what keeps us, the users, hooked to our screens delivering personalized dopamine hits through endless scrolling.
An 8 year old start-up, was all over the news - the bone of contention between USA and China.
2021–2023: Legal battles and negotiations continue, with deadlines repeatedly extended.
2024 - 2025 - U.S. eventually passes legislation requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok U.S. operations or face a ban.
The deadline for sale or ban - January 19, 2025.
20 January, 2025 - Trump takes oath as president for second time and passes order to pause the ban. (Tiktok was banned for ~14 hours)
The deadlines continue to be pushed, with Trump once again claiming that a buyer has been found.
Question is Why Trump saved TikTok, the whole tussle was started during his tenure - Why this mood swing?
- As per Tiktok, in USA it has 170 Mn users and 7 million small businesses.
Political Calculation:
- Trump said "young people will go crazy without it." and "moves against TikTok would benefit Facebook, which he called an enemy of the people."
- Trump debuted on TikTok for his Political Campaign - with great success during the campaign, and has said that it was a key vehicle for reaching young people this year.
- “I’m now a big star on TikTok,” he said. “We’re not doing anything with TikTok but the other side’s going to close it up. So if you like TikTok, go out and vote for Trump. If you don’t care about TikTok — and other things like safety, security and prosperity — then you can vote for a Marxist who’s going to destroy our country.”
(Source: The New York Times)
Suspected Donor Influence:
Jeff Yass, an American billionaire options trader and a major donor to Republican candidates, co-founded the Philadelphia-based trading firm Susquehanna International Group, which owns a 15% stake in TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance. Yass’ personal share is 7%, worth roughly $21 billion.
Critics allege that Yass used his financial and political influence, including relationship with Trump, to protect Tiktok.
(Source: NBC)
- How much influence do social media platforms truly have on shaping public opinion — especially with 2.5 hours of daily engagement?
- The U.S. dominates the social media space — but can it tolerate even one major platform developed outside its borders?
Comments
Post a Comment