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Comment by lvturner

4 years ago

Amusingly, TikTok isn't available in China - only DouYin, which is similar but separate.

I'm not 100% sure on this at this point, but I think if Facebook/Google/etc were willing to do the same they would be allowed in China too, but as it stands they can't/won't comply with Chinese law (I may be mistaken on this, haven't read up on the topic in quite some time)

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lvturner

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daniel_iversen  4 years ago

Yeah, and both TikTok and DouYin are owned by ByteDance. In fact didn't Google on occasion create a crippled/censored version of its search for some time in mainland China or Hong Kong or something?

  • lvturner  4 years ago

    I think they did, but then found it too much effort to maintain (I think there was also some hacking scandal? I forget)

    For what it's worth HK internet presently uncensored, though ironically TikTok pulled out of the HK market as they felt it was too expensive to comply with Hong Kong laws given the size of the available market here.

    DouYin is still available in HK though -- not sure if DouYin is available in US/Euro market or not??

    • woutr_be  4 years ago

      I believe they pulled out because of the new national security law, which allows police to request data without any warrants.

      It’s some somewhat ironic, because TikTok is Chinese owned, and so is the NSL.