The Chinese friendship!

38 Days after India banned popular video-sharing platform TikTok and 58 other Chinese mobile apps in the country citing security reasons, there has been a wave of rage and doubt about the reasons they are banned. After a lot of research into this, came to discover a chain of data theft and espionage Chinese government funds into the Indian economy that will leave you stunned. TikTok, a Chinese video making application owned by bytedance and indirectly managed by the communist party of China has a lot to tell you inside its system.

Chinese investors corner major stakes in 18 out of 30 Indian unicorns which stands at $4 billion. Tiktok, which was then the larger social media platform in India had 200 million users. A numerical which far beyond what we knew. These data contains crucial information about your whereabouts, your likings, dislikings, relations and your contact details. As much as these are sold to corporate telecoms, they are saved in this server in Beijing.

These Chinese tech companies are a national security threat to India and violate the confidentiality of the user’s database. Conducting espionage around the world would be no less than legal in China where there is a law that states that whoever required by the government will have to give access to the company database. This came as a blow to me because I never wondered that a lack of democracy can lead to lack of security too!
Social media platforms owned by Chinese giants are known to censor posts, videos and information on topics like Tiananmen Square
There were 36 calls from children and adults were received by the
counsellor of Tamil Nadu at the 104 helplines regarding TikTok bullying, Tibetian independence, the religious groups like Fallen Gong and Hong Kong.

The most worrying part is the reach of two Chinese companies namely Huawei and ZTE in the Indian Telecom Sector including the Indian military establishment. The establishment data states that more than 60% of the software and hardware related to the telecom being used in India, the state-managed BSNL are either managed by Huawei or by ZTE. Huawei’s supposed links to PLA (People’s Liberation Army). However, these security concerns were sidelined before because of the fact they sell things at a cheaper rate than any other company but not anymore. India’s sovereignty is the first and foremost concern now.

 

It is not suitable for children and not educational. Children were vulnerable and might get uncovered to sexual predators. In 2019 India alone has obtained 88.6 million TikTok users regardless of the inappropriate content it holds. There has been a significant rise in deaths in India among TikTok users

while filming of videos and adhering to many challenges that appear on the app. The accomplishment of shortlived ‘Micro-Fame’ compels these users to stand out unique in each one of such challenge.

There have been 55 deaths around the world and 40 of them are in India with another data of uncountable people injured as they were either completing some challenge or making a music video. Apart from this, there are numerous cases of injuries and bizarre activities people opting for. Since the users of the app are of a young, impressionable age, a lot of criticism surrounding the app was about the addictive nature of TikTok. People started making videos in odd places, moving traffic, putting their lives at risk. The app also invited criticism from parents over the open interface of the app, where children can interact with strangers via the app. This can also invite possible predators and molesters. Speaking about the ban, writer and educator, Kartik Bajoria said, “As parents bringing up a new generation of children that are exposed to a myriad of potentially damaging stimuli, especially in the form of media, be it sexually explicit and violent video games, a barrage of pop culture through films and music that objectifies women, and countless other visual messaging such as advertising & branding that instils a wrong sense of self that is purely dictated by materialism; we need to be awfully careful.
Being “TikTok famous” was a common goal for high schoolers — and controversial. The company has faced child data privacy fines by the FTC and has been linked to several deaths in India; it has been accused of banning certain content, both politically sensitive and not.

After spending 5 months of “home sitting”, the Indian neighbour cannot be trusted in any sense. It’s the time India should find solutions to these crises locally and should encourage and protect the potential start-ups to be an alternative to this eventually.

You can guarantee neither a Chinese gadget nor a Chinese friendship!