TikTok History from origin to Now
TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service. It is an international form of Chinese media "Douyin" with the same purpose and service. A Chinese company ByteDance owned this social media. The company released Douyin in the Chinese market in September 2016. The users of this social media used it to make a variety of short videos with a duration of 3 seconds to 1 minute also up to 3 minutes for some users. The videos are of different genres like dance, comedy, and education. Later, They launched TikTok in 2017 for iOS and Android outside the China Mainland. However, It was made available worldwide after merging with Musical.ly on 2 August 2018. Let's take a glance at its history.
Timeline of TikTok
September 2016: Launched TikTok
The company ByteDance launched Douyin originally under the name A.me. Later, the company rebranded it to Douyin in December of the same year.
September 2017
Intending to globalize this social networking service, the company worked on it and launched TikTok. They launched it for iOS and Android in most of the markets outside China Mainland.
November 2017
TikTok acquired a similar Chinese platform called musical.ly for a billion US dollars. It was a platform where a user can create short lips- sync, live streaming with fans, and comedy videos, and also can share them there. The ByteDnce company then shut down its Live.ly. It was the live-streaming service of the platform musical.ly.
April 2018
The company added an addiction-reduction feature to Douyin. It launched this feature for users who wanted to stop using Douyin. This feature encouraged users to take a break every 90 minutes. Later, the company rolled out this feature to the TikTok app in 2018.
August 2018: musical.ly merged with TikTok
The ByteDance company announced the shutting down of musical.ly and merged it with TikTok to create a larger video community, with existing accounts and data consolidated into one app, keeping the title TikTok. They both have the same motive which is, to capture the world’s creativity and knowledge, and remind everyone to treasure every precious life moment. After merging with musical.ly, TikTok became the most downloaded app in the US.
November 2018
It reached over 800 million active users that month. TikTok hit a billion downloads in February 2019 including the downloads of Douyin. So, it was enlisted as one of the top social media in the world.
3 September 2019
TikTok and the US National Football League (NFL) set forth a multi-year partnership. The agreement had occurred just two days before the NFL's 100th season kick-off at Soldier Field. TikTok organized activities for fans in honour of the deal. Also, the partnership Calls for the launch of an official NFL TikTok account. It is to bring about new marketing opportunities such as sponsored videos and hashtag challenges.
July 2020
It reported close to 800 million monthly active users excluding Douyin users throughout the world. And in the year 2020 TikTok Creator fund started in the United States and then spread all over the world. After the creator's fund, TikTok provides the features to support the creator function on which anyone can send gifts to their favourite creators. If you want to know more about how people earn from TikTok then read the "How to Make Money with TikTok: 12 Easy Ways to Earn Cash" article on Meta Earn Blog.
Controversies and banned on TikTok
Filed lawsuit
In April 2018, Douyin sued Tencent accusing it of spreading false and damaging information on its WeChat platform and blocking Douyin's videos. So, ByteDance demanded CN¥1 million in compensation and an apology. In June 2018, Tencent filed a lawsuit against Douyin in a Beijing court in response. In response, Tencent alleged them back for repeatedly defaming Tencent with negative news and damaging its reputation. Instead, they seek a nominal sum of CN¥1 in compensation and a public apology.
TikTok Band in Indonesia
Indonesia banned TikTok for containing inappropriate content like pornography and blasphemy in July 2018. So, TikTok had come under the radar of Indonesian authorities. The ban on the app was later lifted.
Cases in India
The founder of the Pattali Makkal Katchi party, S Ramadoss had reportedly asked the authorities to ban TikTok in January 2019. He argued that the app distracts youngsters and ends up in sexual perversity.
Tamil Nadu’s Minister of IT, M Manikandan additionally Said that his state will implore the to ban TikTok to the central government in February 2019. His intention behind this act was to degrade culture and encourage pornography through this social media. Throughout the identical month, a school student died, and 2 of his friends were severely gashed when their motorbike rammed into a truck while creating a TikTok video.
In April 2019, Madurai-based senior professional Muthu Kumar filed a plea within the Madras judicature. It was to ban TikTok because of citing pornographic content and exposure of kids to sensitive content. Back then, it had reportedly fifty-four million active users in India.
Three days later, the Madras judicature demanded the central government to ban the app and proscribe the media from using any content created on TikTok.
And on April eighteen, TikTok was pulled down from the Play Store and App Store. The ban lasted for 2 weeks only.
In May 2019, TikTok was back on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store per week when the Madras judicature lifted a stay on the download of the app.
Settlement to Federal Trade Commission
Meanwhile, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance united to pay the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) $5.7 million to settle accusations that it desecrated children’s privacy in February 2019. TikTok was suspected of allegedly lawlessly aggregating the private information of kids exploiting the app.
On April twelve, it responded by removing six million videos for not following its community guidelines.
TikTok censored protest videos
In September 2019, TikTok was severely criticized with allegations of censoring Hong Kong pro-democratic protest videos on the app to appease the Chinese government. Issuing a public statement stating the uncensored Hong Kong protest-related videos, refuted those allegations. That matter gained a great deal of steam internationally when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg slammed China for its censorship laws.
A Guardian investigation discovered that TikTok reportedly censored LGBTQ+ content in countries like Turkey wherever homosexuality has never been illegal in October 2019.
The US against TikTok
The United States launched national censorship on TikTok’s parent company Beijing-based ByteDance over its 2017’s acquisition of the social media app "musical.ly" in November 2019. It alleged that TikTok didn't bear a CFIUS review when it acquired Musical.ly, an American company. Senator Tom Cotton also raised his voice by saying that TikTok may even be used for targeting by foreign influence campaigns, like those carried out during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
In December 2019, The United States Army banned TikTok from government-issued smartphones for security reasons. Accordingly, an army spokesperson referred to it as a cyber threat as reported in the York Times. During the same month, the navy additionally banned TikTok from government devices.
Two Republican senators put forward a bill to ban all federal workers from using TikTok on their government-issued devices. TikTok officers repeatedly stated that it doesn't store user information from the United States in China, and also the communist country doesn't have jurisdiction over content outside China.
Meanwhile, a report from The Intercept discovered that TikTok schooled its moderators to “suppress posts created by users deemed too ugly, poor or disabled for the platform”. In line with the report, moderators were additionally told to censor political speech and publish those that injured “national honour” or broadcast streams regarding “state organs like police” with bans from the platform.
India banned it for 2nd time
In May 2020, TikTok was in the news for all the wrong reasons after a face-off between a TikTok star and a YouTube influencer. The app’s rating declined to one start on Google Play Store following a trend to #bantiktok on Twitter. This trend came to the media through a TikTok video posted endorsing acid attacks on women. A popular TikTok star male Faisal Siddiqui posted this video. That led to users downrating the app on the Google Play Store and line of work for its ban in India. So, the app continues to be questioned over poor content moderation in India though it has gained a large following.
India banned TikTok for the second time in June 2020. It prohibited TikTok along with fifty-eight alternative apps, largely Chinese. Following the order, Apple and Google from the Play Store and App Store removed it.
