First US state to ban Tiktok | kurier. at

In the US, it will be the super Chinese app Tik Tok It gets tighter. The first American country to impose Montana Now ban tiktok. Parliament in the capital, Helena, voted 54-43 on Friday in favor of the first blanket ban in a US state. Specifically, download the app from the app stores at Google or apple be banned.

Those are from the Chinese company Byte Dance The app being launched is suspected of giving the Chinese Communist Party access to user data.

Recently, several western states banned public employees from using Tiktok on the company’s cell phones.

More than a billion users

With over a billion users worldwide, Tiktok is especially popular among the younger generation. The short video service already has other networks like YoutubeAnd Twitter, Instagram And Facebook in terms of time spent on them.

However, experts warn that the app could be used by the Chinese Communist Party for espionage or propaganda purposes. Last month, the Chinese government denied urging Chinese companies to turn over personal user data collected abroad.

Most of them are Western investors

ByteDance itself also rejects all doubts and confirms that it does not consider itself a subsidiary of a Chinese company. ByteDance is 60% owned by Western investors, and the company is based in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. Critics counter that the Chinese founders got 20 percent control thanks to higher voting rights and that Bytedance has a large headquarters in Beijing.

New China app takes off

While Tiktok is under pressure, a brand new app from the family of Tiktok makers ByteDance is invading teen smartphones: Lemon8. The social commerce platform launched in February in the US and is already one of the most downloaded apps in the US.

The app sees itself as a “platform for sharing content with the young community” and is basically a combination of Instagram, Pinterest, and Tiktok itself. Check out fitness tips, drink recipes, shopping and restaurant recommendations, life hacks, vacation videos and so much more.

To attract users, ByteDance must pay celebrity influencers to also (or exclusively) post their content on Lemon8. The sample app is the Chinese platform Xiaohongshu, which has 260 million active users.