TikTok could be banned in the US What happened when India did it?

NEW DELHI

Hugely popular Chinese app TikTok may be forced out of the United States, where a measure to ban the video-sharing app has won congressional approval and is on its way to President Biden for his signature.

In India, the app was banned almost four years ago. Here is what happened :

Why did India ban TikTok?

In June 2020, TikTok users in India bid farewell to the app, operated by Chinese internet company ByteDance. New Delhi banned the popular app, along with dozens of other Chinese apps, following a military clash along the India-China border. Twenty Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed and ties between the two Asian giants plunged to a new low.

The government has cited privacy concerns and said Chinese apps pose a threat to India's sovereignty and security.

The move especially attracted widespread support in India, where protesters have been calling for a boycott of Chinese products since the deadly confrontation in the isolated border region of the Karakoram mountains.

There was a clamor leading up to the move, and the popular discourse was how to allow Chinese companies to do business in India while we were in the middle of a military standoff, said Nikhil Pahwa, a policy expert digital and founder of technology website MediaNama.

Just months before the ban, India had also restricted investments by Chinese companies, Pahwa added. TikTok was not an isolated case. Today, India has banned more than 500 Chinese apps.

How have users and creators reacted?

At the time, India had around 200 million TikTok users, the highest figure outside of China. And the company also employed thousands of Indians.

TikTok users and content creators needed somewhere to go, however, and the ban presented a multibillion-dollar opportunity to capture a large market. In just a few months, Google rolled out YouTube Shorts and Instagram rolled out its Reels feature. Both imitate the short video creation in which TikTok had excelled.

And they ended up capturing most of the market that TikTok had vacated, Pahwa said.

In India, TikTok's content was hyperlocal, which made it very unique. It opened a window into small-town Indian life, with videos showing, for example, people doing tricks while laying bricks.

But for the most part, content creators and users in the four years since the ban have moved to other platforms.

Winnie Sangma misses posting videos on TikTok and making some money. But after the ban, he migrated to Instagram and now has 15,000 followers. The process, for the most part, has been relatively painless.

I have also built up followers on Instagram and am making money from it, but the experience is not like it used to be on TikTok, he said.

Rajib Dutta, a frequent TikTok user, also moved to Instagram after the ban. It wasn't really a big deal, he said.

How is India's ban different from the US's proposed ban?

Legislation banning the app won congressional approval and now awaits Biden's signature.

The measure gives ByteDance, the app's parent company, nine months to sell it, and three more if a sale is pending. If this does not happen, TikTok will be banned. It would take at least a year before a ban takes effect, but with legal challenges likely, it could last longer.

In India, the ban moved quickly in 2020. TikTok and other companies had time to answer questions about privacy and security, and in January 2021, this ban became permanent.

But the situation in the United States is different, Pahwa said. In India, TikTok has decided not to go to court, but the United States represents a larger revenue market for them. Besides, the US 1st Amendment is quite strong, so it will not be as easy for the US as it is for India to do so, he said, referring to the enshrined right to freedom of expression in the American Constitution.

As Chinese apps proliferate across the world, Pahwa says countries need to assess their dependence on China and develop a way to reduce it, as these apps can pose a national security risk.

The app is also banned in Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan and restricted in many European countries.

China's intelligence law and its cybersecurity law may allow Chinese apps to operate in the interest of their own security. This creates a situation of distrust and becomes a risk to the national security of others, Pahwa said.

There should be different rules for democratic countries and for authoritarian regimes where businesses can act as an extension of the state, he added.

Pathi writes for the Associated Press.