{"id":19616,"date":"2020-07-10T07:56:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T07:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rbsitsoftwaresolution.com\/blog\/ban-or-no-ban-facebook-wins-in-u-s-threats-against-tiktok.html"},"modified":"2020-07-10T07:56:33","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T07:56:33","slug":"ban-or-no-ban-facebook-wins-in-u-s-threats-against-tiktok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/ban-or-no-ban-facebook-wins-in-u-s-threats-against-tiktok.html","title":{"rendered":"Ban or no ban, Facebook wins in U.S. threats against TikTok"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the U.S. is \u201clooking at\u201d banning Chinese social media apps, including the Chinese-owned company TikTok, <\/a> comparing it to other Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE that have been deemed national security threats<\/a> by the current administration. \u201cWith respect to Chinese apps on people\u2019s cell phones, I can assure you that the United States will get this one right, too,\u201d Pompeo said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fear is the app could be used to surveil or influence Americans, or else that TikTok parent ByteDance could be made to provide the Chinese government with TikTok\u2019s data on its U.S.-based users \u2014 of which there are at least 165 million<\/a>. India, calling TikTok a \u201cthreat to sovereignty and integrity,\u201d decided to ban the app late last week, saying it had similar concerns.<\/p>\n

Though security experts disagree<\/a> over how concerned the U.S. should be about TikTok, the move would undoubtedly hobble what has become one of the fastest-growing social media businesses on the planet, with 800 million monthly active users<\/a> worldwide, half of whom are under age 24. In the meantime, the mere suggestion of a ban is proving a boon to TikTok\u2019s biggest rival, Facebook \u2014 and notably at a time when the U.S. company faces growing scrutiny<\/a> over its decision not to take action on multiple controversial posts from Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The threat is already prompting some to speculate that Pompeo\u2019s warning was politically motivated. In a new interview<\/a> with Axios, for example, L.A.-based talent manager John Shahidi observes that TikTok users have said they were partially responsible<\/a> for a Trump rally in Oklahoma two weeks ago that failed to deliver huge crowds.<\/p>\n

Shahidi \u2014 whose agency currently oversees nine \u201cchannels\u201d on TikTok that collectively enjoy than 100 million followers \u2014 doesn\u2019t doubt the two are related. \u201cI\u2019m on TikTok a lot,\u201d Shahidi says, and \u201cthere are no Trump supporters, no official Trump account; no one who is from his team is on TikTok.\u201d Is it \u201cjust coincidence that we\u2019re heading toward November and. . . we\u2019re going to talk about taking down TikTok?\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

A shifting landscape<\/strong><\/p>\n

Either way, TikTok influencers are more actively promoting their other social media channels, including Facebook\u2019s <\/a> Instagram, to their followers as a kind of contingency plan. Soon to join them is rising social media star Pierson Wodzynski, a 21-year-old who ran track in high school and was taking a break from studying communications in college when, in January, a friend invited her to participate in a show on AwesomenessTV<\/a>, a YouTube channel that has more than 8 million subscribers.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s set-up centered around nabbing a date with social media star Brent Rivera, who has 13 million YouTube <\/a> subscribers, 19.8 million Instagram followers, and more than 30 million TikTok fans.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Wodzynski found herself with the L.A.-based talent agency that Rivera cofounded two years ago called Amp Studios <\/a>and in recent months, aided by special guest appearances<\/a> by Rivera, she has built a substantial fanbase herself, with 500,000 subscribers on YouTube, 455,000 Instagram followers, and 4.1 million<\/a> fans on TikTok.<\/p>\n

Wodzynski says her followers seem to like the comedy bits she develops, such as a recent series on the \u201cthings that go wrong when you\u2019re running late<\/a>,\u201d and another on the \u201cAppdashians,\u201d wherein each character she plays is a different social media company. (Notably, Facebook is the old grandmother character<\/a>.)\u00a0 Says Wodzynski, who comes across as both confident and affable, \u201cI\u2019m so unbelievably myself [on social media], it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little wonder that Wodzynski is concerned about TikTok\u2019s future in the U.S. Partly, she just enjoys it. (\u201cIt\u2019s a great app to escape, and it\u2019s so different, with a vast music library and editing software that other apps don\u2019t have.\u201d) But it\u2019s also the source of most of her income, she says, explaining that she helps promote the brands with which Amp Studios works, including Chipotle. (\u201cA lot of times, it\u2019s me dancing to a popular song and holding the product, or developing a creative advertisement so it looks enjoyable.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Wodzynski says she is \u201cready for anything,\u201d and that if the U.S. bans the platform, she trusts it will do so for legitimate reasons. Besides, she says, \u201cThere are many other roads to take your content.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sentiment that\u2019s echoed by Max Levine, who cofounded Amp with Rivera, and who advises all of the firm\u2019s talent to diversify across social platforms. \u201cDiversify is a good mantra for life,\u201d says Levine, who learned this lesson early when Vine \u2014 the once-popular video app that Twitter acquired, then subsequently shut down \u2014 \u201cfizzled and died.\u201d<\/p>\n

Land and expand<\/strong><\/p>\n

Levine points to early Vine stars like Logan Paul and Rivera who \u201cwere smart and focused on building platforms on Instagram and YouTube\u201d and who not only emerged unscathed when Vine was shuttered but whose popularity ballooned afterward. He says that Amp\u2019s clients have always \u201cpromoted other socials on TikTok,\u201d and that he\u2019d prefer that they not start becoming too aggressive on this front. \u201cI think if every other TikTok mentions [a call to action], it could be a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet it\u2019s starting to happen, and with the threat of a ban in the air, Wodzynski \u2014 who says she saw her view count go down with India\u2019s TikTok ban \u2014 isn\u2019t immune to the impulse. \u201cActually, later today I will be posting something on TikTok about this whole banning thing and reminding people that if they want to follow my Instagram and Youtube that \u2018this is what I post there,’\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do that pretty regularly, but I\u2019m going to step it up in more in the coming days and weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facebook will be ready, seemingly. Yesterday in India, Instagram rolled out a video-sharing feature<\/a> called Reels to fill the void left by TikTok that will otherwise be filled a different and popular video app in India called Triller, which is based in New York.<\/p>\n

As CNN notes, Facebook began testing the new feature in Brazil last November. Reels is also now available in France and Germany.<\/p>\n

Indeed, though Tiktok was not India\u2019s sole target\u00a0 \u2014 it also indefinitely banned 58 other apps and services provided by Chinese-based firms<\/a> \u2014 the Indian government enjoys a good relationship with Facebook, which recently nabbed a 10% stake<\/a> in local telecom giant Jio Platforms.<\/p>\n

In fact, in February, before a trip to India, Donald Trump talked about Facebook and the ranking that both he and India\u2019s Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoy on the platform. He said Modi is \u201cnumber two\u201d on Facebook in terms of followers, and that he is number one as told to him directly<\/a> by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n

As reported in the Economic Times, Trump said at the time: \u201cI\u2019m going to India next week, and we\u2019re talking about \u2014 you know, they have 1.5 billion people. And Prime Minister Modi is number two on Facebook, number two. Think of that. You know who number one is? Trump. You believe that? Number one. I just found out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/1WMHGx283OM\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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