A ban on Tiktok has been discussed in the USA for months. The app is a stripped-down version of the Chinese platform Douyin. How the two apps, which are used millions of times, differ from each other and why Douyin is so controversial.
Espionage, manipulation, stupidity: the USA accuses the Chinese operators of the globally popular app Tiktok of all of these. Like a Trojan horse, the accusation goes, the Chinese government wants to use the app to sneak into Western societies and steal users’ personal data undetected and without permission.