Born in 2017 and powered by short and vertical videos, the social network from the Chinese company ByteDance today has 1 billion users around the planet. Owner of a powerful algorithm, TikTok has become the seventh most valuable brand in the world, ahead of all competitors in the sector. As a bomb among users, the social network raises alarms from governments – it was even banned in India, Indonesia and Afghanistan. In the United States, where 170 million people have accounts on the social network, distrust has united Democrats and Republicans. The project that could ban TikTok was born during the Donald Trump administration, was approved in a bipartisan manner in Congress, and became law under the sanction of President Joe Biden. To understand why TikTok generates distrust in governments and how China uses the app as a means of soft power, Natuza Nery talks to Ronaldo Lemos, lawyer and director of the Institute of Technology and Society (ITS), in Rio de Janeiro.
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The podcast O Assunto is produced by: Mônica Mariotti, Amanda Polato, Carol Lorencetti, Gabriel de Campos, Luiz Felipe Silva and Thiago Kaczuroski. Presentation: Natuza Nery.
