TikTok is going to be pulling out of Hong Kong due to a controversial law put out by the People’s Republic of China that will now be applying to Hong Kong.  The law is just further pressure put on Hong Kong by the PRC to limit freedom of speech and basically make it so that no one can criticize the PRC with impunity. ByteDance, TikTok’s developer, is trying to keep its overseas brand TikTok separate from its mainland Chinese equivalent Douyin and doesn’t feel like they can keep using TikTok in Hong Kong in light of this new law. In other words, they don’t want people using TikTok overseas to worry about the PRC stealing their data. 

At the moment, TikTok has no plans to open up Douyin to Hong Kong. Gonna be interesting to see when/if ByteDance allows Hong Kongers access to their mainland equivalent in the future and where the company goes from here. 

Side note: The U.S. has threatened to ban TikTok over their Chinese ties, so that seems to be part of the equation for ByteDance as well. 

TikTok says it will exit Hong Kong market within daysTikTok will exit the Hong Kong market within days, a spokesman told Reuters late on Monday, as other technology companies including Facebook Inc suspend processing government requests for user data in the region.www.reuters.com

Yup. Seems like a PR stunt. TikTok worrying about privacy is almost hilarious. I hope they get banned by more countries. Partly because of privacy and party because of the annoying content it spews out. 🤪

The U.S. is considering banning Tik Tok?! 🤯 Not a way to win the youth vote, I wouldn't think.

U.S. is 'looking at' banning TikTok and Chinese social media apps, Pompeo saysThe comments from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo come amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China and as scrutiny on TikTok and Chinese technology firms continue to grow.www.cnbc.com

Then I guess it's a good thing that Sarah Cooper also posts her Trump lipsync videos on YouTube.

For the record, I don’t get TikTok. It’s one of those times where I feel like there really is a younger generation than me that I just don’t get. LOL 😂

I was into those 10 second Vimeo videos so when TikTok came out I embraced it as a short form medium for artists to create—like micro fiction.

Here are a few that are more on the experimental side of the art form.

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One important angle of this story is the PRC’s crackdown on freedom of expression. They’re making it increasingly harder for people to feel express their views. Gonna be interesting to see how that affects them long-term.

Here is an update on TikTok...