Good morning. Last year, TikTok was the most downloaded app in the world. It has a reported user base of more than a billion people and remains the fastest-growing social media platform since 2020. But now a succession of countries have banned it from government devices – with the UK announcing late last week it will join the US, the EU and New Zealand in imposing controls.
Whether or not you actually use it, TikTok’s ubiquity has meant that many of us engage with video content that has originated from the app as it migrates across other platforms. Beyond the general criticisms aimed at TikTok – its addictive nature, its mysterious algorithm, its “shoppertainment” model – the Chinese-owned social media company has attracted a lot of attention from western governments who cite the app as a security issue.
