What is TikTok?

TikTok has been around since 2017. A year later, the Chinese creator ByteDance merged TikTok with the popular app Musical.ly. TikTok has since become successful all over the world at breakneck speed. Especially among the youth. In the Netherlands, the app currently has 4.5 million users. Women, or rather girls, make up the majority (two-thirds) of those users.

The app revolves around short videos of a maximum of 60 seconds that users make of themselves. Movies in which children sing, dance or playback are especially popular. This often goes to the music of well-known hits. Users can add all kinds of filters and effects to make the videos more attractive. If you are curious about the videos, you can TikTok’s website watch some videos. TikTok is mainly used via the phone app (Apple and Android), but users can also put videos online via the website.

As with other social media, users can follow accounts so that they can see that person’s new videos in their timeline. They can also respond to videos or give them a ‘like’ as a sign of appreciation. Making your own videos and putting them online is an important part of the app. The so-called challenges are also very popular. This requires users to perform a certain command, such as coming up with something to a certain music hit.

Due to its success, more and more famous people and companies are also active on the app. An example is jewelry brand My Jewellery. on their page you already get an impression of the videos via the browser.

And there are people who have become famous because of TikTok. An example is Sara Dol, the most successful Dutch user of the app. She is 19 years old and has 2.5 million followers, so people who see her videos when they use the app. American woman Charli D’Amelio has gained more than 100 million followers on TikTok in a short time. This makes her the most successful account in the world.

People with so many followers on social media are also called ‘influencers’. Companies like to use them to advertise their products. Especially companies that target young people.

Most of the videos are cheerful. But in September, something went wrong. A man filmed his own suicide and that video ended up on TikTok via Facebook. It took the company a lot of effort to get the video offline. It was added over and over by users and got a lot of views. TikTok was therefore very negative in the news worldwide.

There is increasing criticism of all aspects of TikTok. President Trump even wants to ban the app in the United States. The opponents point out all kinds of things that in their view are not in order. TikTok, for example, gives recommendations for videos that someone might like. They allegedly acted racist in it. People with dark skin, abnormal appearance or overweight are said to receive too little attention.

An important point is also that the app collects quite a lot of data from users. Which information is not clear, because that is only stated in very general terms in the terms of use. Think about the type of videos someone watches and what they like. It is unclear what happens next with that information. Is the Chinese government watching? And what exactly happens to the personal data of mainly young users? The role of parent company ByteDance is also not entirely clear.

In July 2020, the NOS . published an article about the programming code from TikTok. It states that the app requests the location of someone every 30 seconds. The makers say they have no ties with the Chinese government, but this is not completely certain.

Those who like to try or discover something new can download and use TikTok. Also, if you have grandchildren who are active on TikTok, it’s nice to start following them and watching their videos. But if you are very fond of protecting your personal data, TikTok is not recommended. There is still too much unclear about the way in which maker ByteDance handles personal information.