5 reasons why I think TikTok should be banned
There are two kinds of people in India now: One who knows what TikTok is. The other is in complete darkness.
If you want to transit from the first group to the second, here’s a warning. Your eyes may bleed because you won’t be able to ‘unsee’ what you will see. The app is a one-stop shop for everything you don’t want to shop for — obscenity, child labour, cyberbullying, cringes, etc.
We all are the stars of our films in our imagination. If Bollywood had encouraged this, then TikTok is making these dreams come true.
Before, it was Musical.ly — a music app. Now, it’s TikTok — a video app. Anything can go viral here. Move your head from left to right once. There, you just saw five TikTok stars!
So, what do you have to do? You have to make a short video of you doing anything that may entertain other people — it doesn’t matter how stupid it is. Just do it. Everything else will fall into place.
So what’s wrong in it, you may ask. If people are living out a moment of their dream, let them be. Why be the party pooper?
But that’s the problem. People are only living their dreams!
And here are five reasons why we must ban this Chinese app.
It’s like watching pornography
Not that we have anything against pornography. But probably, this is the first social media platform which you can’t enjoy in a crowded metro or a bus or a shared cab. You have to watch the videos alone, just like pornography.
The Tamil Nadu government has already sought a ban. It found the content literally pornographic. We feel sorry for the pain they underwent to actually go through the content. We tried. Our eyes hurt.
RSS wants a ban
Swadeshi Jagran Manch, the economic wing of the RSS, has said the right thing. Data is the new oil. In a post-Pulwama time, we should not allow a Chinese company to make profits from India — China apparently being a covert enabler of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the terrorist outfit behind the attack.
We absolutely agree — though a number of videos have hashtag RSS and they are garnering more views than Uri: The Surgical Strike.
In another related development, China, which has blocked YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, is actually going gaga over the success of TikTok. They are happy that this TikTok has been a window for world to know China. Well, no one, in particular, was that eager to know about China.
It doesn’t look good on our employment figures
Figures don’t lie.
According to reports, there are 52 million active monthly users of TikTok in India. If you are an Instagram or YouTube star or follow any of them, you would know this is a full-time profession. TikTok is simpler to use, but that doesn’t take away the hard truth that so many Indians — the youth, referred to as the 'demographic dividend' in economic parlance, are actually making videos — in the washroom, at an ex’s wedding, on the bike, under the lorry, everywhere.
What’s this social division?
According to experts, TikTok is highly popular in tier-2 and tier-3 cities in India. Of course, we know why. The videos don’t need anything. Not a perfect camera, not a beautiful setting. You can keep the red bucket of your washroom in the video if you can get past why you should shoot a video in the washroom in the first place.
This is the beauty of TikTok.
But please tell us what is this social division a foreign app is fomenting now? You are from South Delhi — so you are a YouTube star. Someone is from Sagar — does he/she have to be a TikTok star?
Acting too fast
The company is acting too fast. Sample this: To speak in Hindi or not is still a dilemma we face when we are in a multi-lingual group. This app is available in several Indian languages, including Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, etc. It is also planning to hire a chief nodal officer for India since there are several complaints of obscenity.
Before they get their act together, we must get ours and ban this app!
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