TikTok may be banned in the US. Here’s what happened when India did it

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NEW DELHI – Popular Chinese app TikTok could be banned from the United States, where a measure to ban the video-sharing app has won congressional approval and is headed to President Biden for his signature.

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

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WHY DID INDIA BAN TIKTOK?

In June 2020, TikTok users in India said goodbye to the app, operated by Chinese internet company ByteDance. New Delhi suddenly 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 fell to a new low.

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

The move mainly won widespread support in India, where protesters had been calling for a boycott of Chinese goods since the deadly clash in the remote mountainous border region of Karakoram.

“There was an outcry leading up to this, and the popular narrative was how can we allow Chinese companies to do business in India when we are in the middle of a military standoff,” said Nikhil Pahwa, digital policy expert and founder of website MediaNama technology.

Just a few months before the ban, India had also restricted investment from Chinese companies, Pahwa added. “TikTok was not an isolated case. Today, India has banned more than 500 Chinese apps to date.”

HOW DID USERS AND CREATORS REACT?

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

However, TikTok users and content creators needed a place to go, and the ban provided a multibillion-dollar opportunity to carve out a huge market. Within months, Google launched YouTube Shorts and Instagram launched its Reels feature. Both mimicked the short-form video creation that TikTok had excelled at.

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

In India, TikTok’s content was hyperlocal, making it quite unique. It opened a window into small-town life in India, with videos coming from Tier 2 and 3 cities showing people doing tricks while laying bricks, for example.

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

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

“I’ve also built 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 switched to Instagram after the ban. “It wasn’t really a big deal,” he said.

HOW IS INDIA’S BAN DIFFERENT FROM THE US?

Legislation to ban the app won congressional approval and now awaits Biden’s signature.

The move gives ByteDance, the app’s parent company, nine months to sell it and three more if the sale is underway. If this does not happen, TikTok will be banned. It would be at least a year before the ban takes effect, but, in the face of possible legal challenges, it could be extended longer.

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In India, the ban in 2020 was swift. TikTok and other companies were given time to answer questions about privacy and security, and in January 2021, it became a permanent ban.

But the situation in the United States is different, Pahwa said. “In India, TikTok decided not to go to court, but the United States is a higher revenue market for them. Also, the First Amendment in the United States is quite strong, so it will not be as easy for the United States to do this as it was for India,” he said, referring to free speech rights in the US Constitution.

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

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

“Chinese intelligence law and its cybersecurity law may allow Chinese applications to operate in the interests of their own security. That creates a situation of mistrust 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 companies can act as an extension of the state,” he added.

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