![]() Moreover, this paper highlights the role of platform owners (e.g., Google and Apple) in gatekeeping mobile app privacy standards and the role of the state in imposing a data protection framework on overseas versions of China-based mobile apps. ![]() Baidu has the most unsatisfactory data and privacy protection measures, while ByteDance’s TikTok/Douyin and TopBuzz/Toutiao offer more comprehensive user protection from different jurisdictions. Our analysis showed variations across apps and within the Chinese and international-facing versions in their data and privacy governance in app design and policies. Lastly, we conducted content analysis of the terms of service and privacy policies to establish the app’s data collection, storage, transfer, use, and disclosure measures. To study the app’s interface design, we employ the walkthrough method to examine privacy features during the account registration and deletion stages in app usage. We first present an overview of the ownership, functions, business models and strategies of the reviewed apps. Together, these four applications represent popular Chinese apps branching into diverse overseas markets such as Europe, Brazil, North America, and Southeast Asia. While TikTok agreed to pay the largest ever penalty in a children’s privacy case in the US, there is still much for it to learn and adapt in the global market.We examine and compare data and privacy governance by four China-based mobile applications and their international versions: Baidu, Toutiao and its international version TopBuzz, Douyin and its international version TikTok, and WeChat. And there are possibilities for more unforeseen circumstances due to nontransparent regulation of social media within China. Last month, TikTok was penalised A$8 million by the US Federal Trade Commission due to its violation of Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.īyteDance’s low-level attention to underage users on Douyin and TikTok shows the lack of structural mechanisms in place for protecting children in China. It’s what happens to your six or seven-year-old. It’s not that the content on TikTok isn’t okay for your 15-year-old. But ByteDance refused to disclose how many of these 10,000 moderators would work for TikTok, and whether the content standards for American users are the same as those for Chinese users.Ĭhina bans streaming video as it struggles to keep up with live contentĬhief executive of Common Sense Media James P Steyer said children on TikTok are “significantly too young for it”. And to gain more Douyin followers, some children, for instance, have been reported as recording suggestive gestures or dances.īyteDance’s chief executive Zhang Yiming responded by saying the company would increase its content moderation team from 6,000 staff members to 10,000. This includes child users who are making money by live streaming or posting advertising videos on Douyin. In April 2018, Chinese internet regulators accused ByteDance, of spreading “unwholesome” content through Douyin. For instance, WeChat’s mobile payment service, WeChat Pay, only allows Chinese citizens with a Chinese bank account to set up an account. Author provided, Author providedīut the pursuit of white skin isn’t a social motivator in most western countries, and technological constraints like this are easily noticed.ĭespite ByteDance’s efforts to minimise Chinese culture in its international app, it is still difficult for TikTok to fully understand western culture.Īnd this is especially true of other Chinese social media platforms, which don’t really endeavour to incorporate global cultures at all. ![]() Instead, it created a separate app, TikTok, specifically for going abroad.Ī preview photo of TikTok from an Australian app store. ![]() Unlike the global strategies of its peers, ByteDance has never merged Chinese and international digital realms. WeChat, for instance, tried ( and failed) to expand into the non-Chinese overseas market, even hiring soccer star Lionel Messi to front their advertising campaign. Nevertheless, many China-based social media platforms, such as Weibo, WeChat, You Ku, Blued and Douyin, are seeking to expand into the global market. This is because China’s Great Firewall prevents foreign social media from entering the Chinese market. Some scholars attribute the success of Chinese social media to the censorship and isolation of China’s internet. Chinese social media is already going global The video-sharing platform may have broken into some non-Chinese markets, but it still has a lot to learn when it comes to outside regulations and culture.Īnd this is true for Chinese apps generally – they face obstacles refining their global strategies, particularly in navigating China’s notorious internet censorship. Thinking of taking up WeChat? Here's what you need to knowīut TikTok is not yet a complete success story.
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