TikTok announced a one-hour daily limit for users under 18, but authorities in China have pushed the domestic version, Douyin, much further. China Report is MIT Technology Review's newsletter about technology developments in China.
Already, bans on using the app in government have taken effect at the state level. More than half of U.S. states have banned state employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices and a number of U.S. universities have barred it from their WiFi networks. Worth noting: TikTok doesn't operate inside China.
TikTok says it has 150 million U.S. users; Sensor Tower, a market intelligence company, says users spend an average of 93 minutes a day on the app. This month, the company announced a new 60-minute “daily screen time limit” for every account registered to a user under age 18.
A handful have imposed nationwide bans on the app. TikTok, owned by Chinese technology company Bytedance, has long maintained that it doesn't share data with the Chinese government.
When the 60-minute limit is reached, notifications will be muted. If teenagers want to keep using the app, they'll get an alert and must enter a passcode to continue. This feature will be automatically set for all users under 18, but teens can turn it off if they choose.
Daily screen time is a screen time management setting that allows you to manage your app usage. It lets you set a daily screen time limit so that you get notified when you reach that time on TikTok. You can turn this setting on and off at any time.
Videos on TikTok can currently be up to 10 minutes long.
But the wildly popular platform, developed with homegrown Chinese technology, isn't accessible in China. In fact, it's never existed there. Instead, there's a different version of TikTok — a sister app called Douyin.
TikTok, and its Chinese counterpart Douyin (Chinese: 抖音; pinyin: Dǒuyīn), is a short-form video hosting service owned by ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 3 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok Pte. Ltd.
In Japan, the use of TikTok and other social networking services (SNSs) are prohibited on government devices that handle confidential information. Nakayama said further restrictions should be considered only after looking into their data-handling and other operations.
Using the bulk block feature, you can block up to 100 accounts at a time.
You can follow up to 10000 accounts in total on TikTok. On a daily basis, not more than 200 accounts. If you exceed the following limit set by the platform, you may face a shadowban or account suspension.
In Hong Kong, there's no need to imagine that reality: TikTok discontinued its services there in 2020. Its abrupt departure was met with mixed reactions: disappointment from some users and content creators, but also relief from others who say life is better without the app's infinite scroll.
TikTok is different in China due to its focus on Chinese markets and user demographics. As the original version of the app, Douyin has a larger presence in China compared to TikTok.
Afghanistan banned TikTok in September 2022 for "misleading the younger generation," but it is not clear how well the ban is being enforced [read more]. TikTok is also blocked in Iran and North Korea, but both these countries have highly censored internet, so it is not necessarily a TikTok-specific ban.
According to the latest data on TikTok's advertising reach, the United States is home to the majority of TikTok users worldwide, with 116.5 million TikTokers residing there.
Douyin is Chinese version of TikTok, and the only version of the platform available to people living in China. It's also owned by ByteDance and it's been around since 2016. Like the international version TikTok, Douyin also provides users with a feed of video content tailored to their interests and preferences.
Bans or former bans by country
Although not blocked in China, Hong Kong, and Macau.
For a long time, TikTok insisted any data collected by their servers could not be accessed by anyone in China. In November 2022, the company changed its privacy policy. It now said staff in China could access data.
Similarly, Chinese users can not access TikTok, the international version of Douyin. Tiktok can be downloaded from Google Play Store or overseas Apple Store.
Like Facebook, YouTube, Google, and Twitter, Instagram is also banned in China. It is also not in any Chinese app stores. If you will try to use the app from the country, it will show an error message on your screen. Here is the list of websites that are blocked in mainland China.
The most successful TikTok users make money through a combination of revenue streams that can include sponsorships, fundraising drives, product sales, and accepting tips. TikTok users can also promote products through an affiliate link to get paid directly from brands.
TikTok Stories expire after 24 hours and will no longer be visible on your public-facing feed. Fortunately, you'll still have access to an archive, where you can view all of your old stories and dig into their stats. Can you delete TikTok Stories? Yes, it's easy to delete your TikTok Story.
“We have not removed 10 minute videos - users can still upload videos up to 10 minutes. There was an earlier experiment that allowed select users to also record videos up to 10 minutes from the TikTok app, but that has since ended.”