TikTok and Douyin

TikTok in China vs US

History

Douyin is the original version of TikTok, which was released in 2016 and is owned by ByteDance. Then it is brought to the US and the international version, TikTok, is released in 2018.

Regulations

Douyin

for children under 14 years old:

- the app is locked from 10PM to 6AM

- only 40 minutes per day

- promoted videos by the algorithm: science experiments, museum exhibits, patriotism and culture videos, education, and PE lessons

TikTok

no regulations

What are the difficulties of regulating media in the digital age?

TikTok and Douyin are social media streaming platforms that allow audiences to watch short, vertical videos that could be personalized to cater to each user. Due to this, regulations became something that could be said to be significant today but in today's media digital age, there are more difficulties appearing. 

Douyin contains strict regulations that don't allow children under 14 years old to watch freely. Even with these regulations, it can still be difficult as there are always possibilities for users to lie about their information and bypass the given regulations in order to watch Douyin freely. Now there are also many technologies that can increase the level of difficulty, for example, VPN. Users can use VPN to access TikTok or other content that may not be appropriate for them yet, making it harder for platforms to give regulations that are actually effective. But due to the given regulations, it can be said that China's freedom of speech is much more limited than internationally.

TikTok on the other hand, has no strict regulations or rules regarding using its platform which allows