No two apps are made alike and this applies to social media apps as well. Although TikTok has managed to garner a huge audience around the globe by serving short-form videos, the platform has currently been put under a scanner after concerns regarding the privacy of its users and data security.
With the world living in isolation, the absence of a video sharing platform like TikTok might affect a ton of people and if you’re already wondering if TikTok might get banned in the region that you reside in, then you should prepare yourself to move away from it.
Regardless of whether you’re passing your time by scrolling through a feed of videos or you’re someone who makes those videos and you want to do either of them without depending on Facebook-made services or without settling for an unestablished platform, then Snapchat is something you should consider. If you’re wondering if Snapchat Chinese-made and if you can depend on it, then this post should help you figure it out.
Related: Should you delete TikTok?
Is Snapchat a Chinese App?
No. Snapchat is developed by Snap Inc., an American company based in Santa Monica, California.
Not only is Snapchat a non-China-based app, but the platform is also actually banned in China along with a bunch of other social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others. This is because China censors most of the things online as a means to prevent views from the rest of the world affect their own people.
Snapchat vs TikTok
While it started as a personal messaging app with self-destructing images and videos, overtime the app has gained several social media features, most of which have also inspired other platforms.
Just like TikTok, Snapchat also lets you post short-form videos inside Stories, that can then be broadcasted to everyone who follows you. You can create a sequence of “stories” in chronological order to attract more audience and your videos will then be available on your followers’ screens, like videos in TikTok’s “Following” tab.
Swipe left from the camera on Snapchat and you’ll be taken to the Discover page that lets you view clips from popular publishers like major brands and influencers, some of which might also be based on your interests. If you ever used TikTok, you’d understand that Snapchat’s Discover page correlates to the former’s “For you” page, showing you broadcasted stories from top brands, content creators and influencers.
Why did TikTok get banned
At the end of last month, India, TikTok’s biggest international market, decided to implement a ban on the social video-sharing platform along with a bunch of other China-based applications.
At the time, India’s IT Ministry officially confirmed that such a move was taken after TikTok and other Chinese apps were found to be “engaged in activities, prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India” and that there were concerns of data security and user privacy.
Following the India ban, the US government is also reportedly considering a ban on TikTok and other Chinese apps, after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested that this was a serious concern to the country as well. Such a move will further heighten the tension between the US and China which previously suffered over concerns reviving around trade, technology, and national security.
Will Snapchat get banned?
If you haven’t yet learned in your many years online, you should know that nothing available online is fully safe and secure. That applies to Snapchat as well which has, in the past, found itself amidst several controversies.
In its years of existence, the platform has been found to have security vulnerabilities, misrepresented privacy and user confidentiality policies, calling out India and Spain as “poor” markets, doctoring growth metrics, and more. Like TikTok, Snapchat has also been reported to spy on its users after Snap employees were found to abuse their power to access Snapchat user data.
Snapchat’s most recent controversy involves the app is being used for disseminating revenge porn of underage girls and how its self-destructing message creation allows assailants to share and spread nonconsensual, pornographic content without any consequences.
Although the government’s main focus is to clear out Chinese apps like TikTok for now, there’s no guarantee that Snapchat might not get banned by authorities around the world.
How to get TikTok despite the ban
After reading all of this, if you’re still looking for ways to use TikTok, then you might want to use Chinese TikTok. Just like Tencent has the Weixin app instead of WeChat for its native Chinese users, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance also has a China-only version of TikTok called Douyin.
Douyin is the official version of TikTok in China with over 400 million daily active users, that’s over two-thirds of the mobile social network space in China. If you wish to try Douyin, we have already prepared a guide for you to download and get the Chinese TikTok on your phone.
Are you going to use Snapchat instead of TikTok?
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