TikTok is the so-called social network for young people. In recent years it has had exponential growth and this has meant that there are more and more users around the world using it. It was born in September 2016 under the name musical.ly and is a Chinese video content sharing platform.
Its growth has ousted other social networks, including Facebook and Instagram, which had dominated until then.
In particular, it is the very young people under 18 who have started using TikTok, creating the so-called trends of the moment. Some nations, however, have banned its use: the decision was also taken by another country and the reason is truly unexpected…
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Which country banned TikTok because it “disturbs social harmony”
Despite its enormous success, TikTok has had more than one setback. In the European Parliament, criticism was raised about the security of the app. For this reason, last March the 8,000 employees were asked not to use the application. Afterwards, it was blocked on UK and Belgian government services.
The bans also affected the United States, and then continued in Europe. This time, however, an Asian country decided to block it.
We are talking about Nepal, which has decided to ban the app for the entire population. The social network, in fact, is accused of espionage.
The Minister of Telecommunications, Rekha Sharma, argued that TikTok is guilty of “disturbing social harmony”, upsetting social and family relationships.
This is a huge loss for the application, given that there are around 30 million inhabitants in Nepal. However, only a small part of its citizens have access to an Internet connection (just over half of the inhabitants).
The reasons that are not convincing
Many doubts have arisen behind the Nepalese Government’s decision and there are those who have put forward the hypothesis that this block derives from cyber crimes linked to the application.
The strategy carried out by Nepal would aim to discourage the improper use of the platform, which can cause numerous damages if not used correctly. But not everyone agrees on its implementation.
Suffice it to say that one of the local politicians, as well as former Minister of Health, Gagan Thapa, argued that with this decision the Government is doing nothing but suffocating freedom of expression.
Regulation is needed, according to the politician, but banning fellow citizens from social media a priori would be the wrong choice.