Understanding the Impact of the TikTok Ban: Lessons Learned from India

TFD – Delve into the aftermath of the TikTok ban and glean valuable lessons from India’s journey. Explore alternative platforms, digital security challenges, and the battle against misinformation in a post-TikTok era. Stay ahead with insights into how social media dynamics are reshaping digital landscapes globally.

There are things that American users of TikTok who are concerned about losing access to the immensely popular social media app can learn from a foreign nation.

A bill that might result in a nationwide ban on TikTok was passed by the US House of Representatives on Wednesday. The 170 million users of the Chinese-owned app in the United States are extremely disturbed, even if it is not going to vanish from phones anytime soon.

However, they should be aware that a world without TikTok is one in which it is still possible to prosper. Just ask the most populous country on Earth.

Following a horrific border clash in June 2020 that claimed the lives of at least twenty Indian soldiers, the New Delhi administration abruptly banned TikTok and a number of other popular Chinese apps.

Nikhil Pahwa, the creator of the digital website MediaNama, is headquartered in Delhi. “It’s important to remember that the US was the first to praise the decision when India banned TikTok and multiple Chinese apps,” Pahwa said. “The restriction was hailed by [former US Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo, who claimed it would “enhance India’s sovereignty.”

The 200 million TikTok users in India were taken aback by the sudden decision, but in the four years that followed, a large number of them discovered more acceptable options.

The prohibition of Tiktok gave rise to a multibillion-dollar opportunity. A 200 million user base needed a somewhere to go, according to Pahwa, who also stated that American tech companies eventually took advantage of the opportunity with their new products.

Without TikTok, life is

Not everything about the ban was easy. What followed were days and months of bewilderment and even agony for Indian TikTokkers.

By 2020, Indians seeking solace from the rigorous lockdowns associated with COVID-19 had come to love TikTok.

“Everyone in India aspires to be a Bollywood star, and TikTok made that dream possible by turning regular people—even those from small towns—into overnight celebrities,” stated Saptarshi Ray, head of product at the influencer marketing platform Viralo, which is situated in Bengaluru.

However, it didn’t take long for them to find new creative and business endeavor outlets.

To close the gap, US tech giants and local startups engaged in a fierce battle. Instagram, owned by Meta, profited from the prohibition within a week by introducing Instagram Reels, a TikTok clone, in India. YouTube Shorts, Google’s own collection of short videos, was released.

Local substitutes like MX Taka Tak and Moj have started to gain traction and receive more investment.

But those local startups soon burned out, unable to match the financial might and market penetration of the American companies, which are booming.

A Google representative stated that in 2022, “the YouTube creative ecosystem” brought in almost $2 billion for the Indian economy, citing independent research from consultancy firm Oxford Economics.

Ray claims that Indian video producers quickly converted all of their previously shot TikTok content to YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. He claimed that certain influencers were earning four to five million members annually by uploading seven Reels every day.

However, not all of them were successful in gaining a sizable fan base on these websites.

“After the ban, a lot of users and creators went into a dark and deep place from which some have yet to come out,” stated Clyde Fernandes, executive director of artist management at Opraahfx, an influencer marketing and management company.

He went on, “The method one was getting exposure and followers on TikTok is [still] unmatched to any other platform out there at the moment.”

How about security?

Legislators and US officials have long expressed fear that ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, would be forced to turn up user data gathered in the US by the Chinese government.

The national security issues surrounding TikTok, according to cybersecurity specialists, are still mostly speculative. However, experts in India claim that the removal of it from the country’s digital life hasn’t made it any safer.

“I’m not sure if taking TikTok down will have a significant impact on the cybersecurity threat landscape. This is unlikely to change unless there is a significant shift in consumer understanding regarding the apps on their phones and what they download from the public internet, according to Vivan Sharan, a partner at the digital policy consulting firm Koan Advisory Group, located in Delhi.

Lawmakers in the US are also concerned that Beijing would use the app to disseminate false information, persuade Americans, or both. TikTok’s withdrawal hasn’t protected Indians from such dangers.

“With or without TikTok, it is evident that we still have significant problems with deepfakes and other related misinformation in the content and disinformation environment,” Sharan stated. “Thus, if TikTok was indeed problematic, it is difficult to determine which aspect of the risk landscape changes significantly overall.”