TikTok is emerging to be one of the most popular social media platforms, the app has recorded over 246.9 million downloads globally since the start of 2023. In-app purchases on the platform generate up to $5.5m in a day. So far in this quarter, TikTok has generated $497.7m from in-app purchases alone.
According to a recent report, “TikTok continues to demonstrate resilience despite the renewed push to ban the app in different countries led by the U.S. Various governments have raised concerns that TikTok, owned by the Chinese firm ByteDance, may endanger sensitive user data. In this line, U.S. lawmakers are pushing for new legislation to ban the app. This comes after the White House directed Federal agencies to delete the app from government devices.”
Last week, TikTok was fined over $16m by UK privacy regulators for failing to protect children’s data, the breaches allegedly happened between May 2018 and July 2020.
“There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws,” said John Edwards, Information commissioner.
Earlier this month, Australian government officials were banned from using the social media application on government-issued devices.
The decision comes amid concerns over the platform being a national security risk and the possibility of it being used for foreign interface by the Chinese government.
Similar decisions were implemented in other countries around the world including US, Canada, New Zealand and the UK.
TikTok, however, has denied that it poses any national security risk and was “extremely disappointed” with the decision.
The application has taken the world by storm with a steep surge in usage, especially by the younger generation during the pandemic. Other social media platforms were seen introducing short-form video features such as YouTube Shorts.
