Tussle over TikTok keeps Middle East content creators on edge

The download page for the TikTok app is displayed on an Apple iPhone on August 7, 2020. (AFP)
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Updated 09 September 2020
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Tussle over TikTok keeps Middle East content creators on edge

  • Users bide their time as Trump’s executive order seeking to ban video-sharing app faces legal challenge
  • Saudi Arabia ranked as the eighth-largest country in terms of users in 2019, according to Route Note

DUBAI: The race to buy one of the hottest social media apps in the market is intensifying as its current owner girds for a court battle with the US government.
Some of the world’s biggest firms are huddled in talks to acquire the Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok after President Donald Trump’s executive order last month that would ban the app in the US over national security concerns unless another company purchases it by mid-September.
On Aug. 24, TikTok and a company employee filed separate lawsuits in California against the Aug. 6 executive order.
Users in the Middle East are concerned about the regional ramifications of a potential US ban.




Video app TikTok said on August 22 it will challenge in court a Trump administration crackdown on the popular Chinese-owned service, which Washington accuses of being a national security threat. (AFP/File Photo)

With over 800 million active global users, according to DataReportal, and more than 2 billion downloads as of April 2020, the app ranks among the world’s 10 most popular social media platforms.
In the Middle East, social media influencers and content creators welcomed the app with open arms.
As of 2019, Saudi Arabia ranked as the eighth-largest country in terms of users, according to Route Note.
With the UAE taking second spot among Gulf Cooperation Council member states, TikTok set up its regional office in Dubai in 2018, servicing the Middle East and North Africa.




In the Middle East, social media influencers and content creators - such as Abbas, Sarah Miladd and Saad Abdullah - welcomed the app with open arms. (Supplied)

The UAE ranks 11th globally in number of TikTok influencers, with an average of 380 videos uploaded each onto their feeds.
“TikTok has grown rapidly this year, and across the Middle East in particular it has been really well received,” Rami Zeidan, head of video and creative at TikTok’s Dubai office, told Arab News.
“We’ve seen content emerge across multiple segments in the region, especially through the participation of our content creators in some hyper-local challenges, and we’ve recently seen an uptick in fitness, tech and gaming content.”

INNUMBERS

UAE TIKTOK

* 2.16% Percentage of influencers with over 100k followers.

* 380 Total videos uploaded on average to influencers’ feeds.

* 22.3% Accounts with more than 500 media entries.

* 58.54% 18-34-aged males’ share of app audience.

* 20.04% Engagement rate of app influencers.

Zeidan said one of the app’s main commitments in the region is to cultivate the TikTok community through different on-platform challenges and other initiatives tailored to Arabic audiences.
“We work closely with our TikTok community and encourage them to express their creativity across a variety of verticals from music to food, education, travel, fitness, fashion and comedy, as there isn’t one area that we prioritize over the other,” he added.
Growing with this popularity is uncertainty over the app’s future following Trump’s executive order and the legal challenges.
The executive order bars any US transactions with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance.

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The order states that the data TikTok collects “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information,” and could allow China to track the location of federal employees and contractors.
Under the order, TikTok would be indefinitely blocked from millions of users in the US unless another company acquires the app by Sept. 20.
In its suit, TikTok argues that it was deprived the opportunity to respond, and said the national security concerns surrounding the app are without merit.
“The executive order is not rooted in bona fide national security concerns,” reads the complaint posted on the company’s website. “Independent national security and information security experts have criticized the political nature of this executive order, and expressed doubt as to whether its stated national security objective is genuine.”

 

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A separate lawsuit filed by a TikTok employee calls the order “sweepingly broad,” and questions whether employee wages and salaries will be covered by a section of the executive order that bans transactions with the company.
Many social media experts believe that the controversy has more to do with US-China tensions.
“Data is definitely something that’s part of a big conversation when it comes to apps, but every single app we use has so much data, which a lot of governments already have access to” Alexandra Maia, social media creative strategist and CEO of House of Social, a Dubai-based consultancy business, told Arab News.
“Since TikTok is a Chinese-owned app — and we know there are tensions between China and the US — it’s a recipe for disaster, and we just have to sit and see what unfolds.”
Maia said a potential ban in the US may create a temporary sense of uncertainty among regular users in the Arab world, but will not impact “pure content creators” who are building a brand.

 




 In this file photo taken on August 11, 2020, the logo of Chinese video app TikTok is seen on the side of the company's new office space at the C3 campus in Culver City, in the westside of Los Angeles. (AFP/File Photo)

“The majority of people might be a little hesitant to continue creating content frequently, but a small group of hardcore creators will continue doing so because they understand the game,” she added.
“We see that (with TikTok) in the Middle East, just like (we saw) with Snapchat in Saudi Arabia. The younger generations go in first because they’re the savviest, the ones who have more of the early taste and thirst for it. The older generation then starts to catch up.”
In practical terms, TikTok initially attracted predominantly teenagers due to its unique and easy-to-use editing tools, but it quickly became popular among those in their 30s, with the hashtag #over30’sclub going viral in recent times. Despite the controversy, Maia, like many other analysts, believes TikTok is “here to stay.”
The buzz over potential buyers, including Twitter, Microsoft and most recently Oracle, is creating anticipation over the future of TikTok, now worth an estimated $75 billion, according to Pitchbook.
The man behind the app, which has millions posting short-form mobile videos, is Chinese billionaire Zhang Yiming, whose net worth stands at $16.2 billion.




The man behind the app is Chinese billionaire Zhang Yiming. (Reuters)

Known to be extremely private about his personal life, Zhang called Trump’s demand to sell the app “unreasonable.”
A TikTok spokesperson told Arab News: “Since publicly announcing two weeks ago that we are evaluating changes to the corporate structure of the TikTok business, there have been numerous suggestions made by external people not involved in the company’s internal discussions. We do not comment on rumors or speculation. We are very confident in the long-term success of TikTok and will make our plans public when we have something to announce.”
TikTok has launched a news portal called “The Last Sunny Corner of the Internet” to address comments around the Trump administration’s executive order, its approach to combating misinformation, and the app’s security roadmap.
For concerned content creators in the Arab world, Maia has a few words of advice: “As marketers and businesspeople, we just have to focus on creating content, building our brand, being transparent with our followers, and just start preparing a little bit on that exit strategy in case it does happen. But until then, create your content, and your community will follow you where you want them to follow.”

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Twitter: @jumana_khamis


UK pledges over $5 million in aid to Gaza

Updated 38 sec ago
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UK pledges over $5 million in aid to Gaza

LONDON: Britain pledged $5.4 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza, the government said on Wednesday, as its Minister for Development Jenny Chapman visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
“The Israeli government’s failure to allow full humanitarian access to aid workers is abhorrent. Far too few trucks are crossing into Gaza,” Chapman said.
“The UK is clear — Israel will not achieve security through prolonging the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
Britain on Tuesday paused free trade talks with Israel over its new offensive in Gaza, with foreign minister David Lammy calling for an end to the blockade of aid.
The British Red Cross will receive the new aid package and deliver it through the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Britain said.

Jordanian ambassador visits Nablus field hospital providing medical services for Palestinians

Updated 10 sec ago
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Jordanian ambassador visits Nablus field hospital providing medical services for Palestinians

  • The facility began operations in September 2023 to enhance medical cooperation between Jordan and Palestine
  • The governor of Nablus said the initiative was a ‘generous gesture’ from Jordan

LONDON: Jordanian Ambassador to Palestine Issam Al-Bdour visited the Jordanian field hospital in Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank, on Wednesday to observe the medical services being provided.

The hospital’s commanding officer briefed Al-Bdour and Nablus Mayor Ghassan Daghlas on the facility’s services provided to residents of Nablus and its environs, the Petra news agency reported.

The ambassador toured the hospital’s various departments and expressed appreciation for the efforts of the Jordanian medical teams and the Jordanian Armed Forces’ role in supporting Palestinians.

The facility began operations in September 2023 to enhance medical cooperation between Jordan and Palestine. It includes clinics for pediatrics, gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, orthopedics, dermatology, and dentistry, as well as operating rooms and intensive care units.

Daghlas described the initiative as a “generous gesture” reflecting the ongoing historical relations between Jordan and Palestine.


Israeli forces encircle two of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals

Updated 26 min 14 sec ago
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Israeli forces encircle two of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals

  • Indonesian hospital and Al-Awda hospital are among the region’s only surviving medical centers
  • Three hospitals and three primary health care centers are within an evacuation zone announced by Israel Friday

Two of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals have been encircled by Israeli troops, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities, hospital staff and aid groups said this week, as Israel pursued its renewed offensive into the devastated Palestinian territory.
The Indonesian hospital and Al-Awda hospital are among the region’s only surviving medical centers. Both have come under fire this week, including shelling at Al-Awda that happened Wednesday as The Associated Press spoke to its director on the phone.
A third hospital, Kamal Adwan, is out of service, its director said, citing Israeli troops and drones in its vicinity.
Israeli authorities issued evacuation orders Friday for large parts of northern Gaza ahead of attacks intended to pressure the Hamas militant group to release more hostages. New evacuation orders followed Tuesday.
All three hospitals and three primary health care centers are within the evacuation zone. Israel has not ordered the evacuation of the facilities themselves. Another two hospitals and four primary care centers are within 1,000 meters (yards) of the zone, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization.
Israeli military operations and evacuation orders “are stretching the health system beyond the breaking point,” he said.
Hundreds of attacks on health facilities
Only 20 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functioning, serving the territory’s more than 2 million people, amid continued bombing, rising malnutrition rates, and dwindling medical supplies.
The WHO said hospitals in northern Gaza are “at a serious risk of shutting down completely.” The United Nations agency has documented nearly 700 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza since the start of Israel’s 19-month war against the Hamas militant group.
The Israeli military has raided or laid siege to hospitals throughout the war, accusing Hamas of using them as command centers and to hide fighters, though it has only provided evidence for some of its claims. Hamas security men have been seen in hospitals during the war, controlling access to certain areas, and in recent weeks Israel has targeted alleged militants inside health facilities.
Palestinians say the latest attacks on hospitals in the north are part of a larger plan to displace the population to the south and eventually drive them from Gaza.
Israel has vowed to facilitate what it refers to as the voluntary migration of much of Gaza’s population to other countries, which many Palestinians and others view as a plan for forcible expulsion.
Israel wants to “ensure the forced displacement of people from the area” by putting hospitals out of service, said Rami Shourafi, a board member of Al-Awda hospital.
The Indonesian hospital comes under attack
The Indonesian hospital, once the largest in northern Gaza, has been surrounded by Israeli troops, who were positioned about 500 meters (545 yards) away. Drones have hovered above, monitoring any movement, since Sunday, an aid group that supports the hospital said.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating around the hospital and targeting Hamas infrastructure but that troops had not entered the facility and ambulances were allowed to move.
Israeli bulldozers demolished a perimeter wall of the hospital, according to the aid group MERC-Indonesia and a hospital staff member who had since evacuated. The staffer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
On Tuesday, airstrikes targeted the hospital’s generators, sparking a fire and damaging its main power supply. The strikes also caused damage to the hospital’s water supply, according to a video posted by MERC-Indonesia. Large flames were seen rising from the area before daybreak. A speaker in the video said the fire was close to the hospital fuel supply, but firefighters controlled the flames.
At least one staff member was killed, according to WHO, which said those who remained in the hospital were in urgent need of water and food. The UN said it was working to transfer remaining patients to other facilities.
Military activity around the hospital also damaged ceilings, the hospital roof and some equipment. At least 20 doctors and staff members decided to stay in the building, said MERC-Indonesia, and most patients evacuated themselves after fighting intensified in the area starting Thursday.
Doctors and staffers at the hospital were not immediately reachable for comment. A video posted by MERC-Indonesia that was shot from the hospital windows showed an Israeli tank a few meters (several feet) away from the hospital.
Israeli strikes isolate Al-Awda hospital
Nearly a kilometer (about half a mile) away, Israeli drones fired Monday into the Al-Awda hospital courtyard, preventing movement, Shourafi said. On Wednesday, the hospital was shelled while its director was on the phone with The Associated Press. A large boom could be heard on the call.
“They are bombing the hospital,” said Dr. Mohammed Salha, the facility’s director. He later said one security guard was wounded. Patients were not near to the area hit, he said.
A video shared with AP showed damage to the roof and debris in the corridors, with dust still rising from the area.
On Tuesday, Israeli drones fired at two ambulances that transferred three patients to Gaza City as the crews tried to return to the hospital, spokesperson Khaled Alhelo said.
Alhelo himself was unable to return to the hospital Tuesday because of military activity. There are currently no ambulances or Internet lines at Al-Awda hospital, according to Shourafi and Alhelo.
Israeli troops are about 900 meters (about half a mile) away from the hospital, Alhelo said. But the real risk, he said, is from Israeli drones flying over the hospital and preventing any movement in or out.
“Anyone moving in the hospital is fired at. They are all keeping low inside the hospital,” he said.
The Israeli military had no comment when asked on the situation at Al-Awda and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday’s shelling.
About 47 patients, including nearly 20 children and several pregnant women, and some 140 doctors and medical staff members are still at the hospital, hospital board member Shourafi said.
He said the hospital board decided not to evacuate the hospital and called for supplies and the return of ambulances because there are still bombings and wounded people in the area.
“In light of the war, and conflict, it should remain functioning,” Shourafi said. He said the hospital has been besieged and raided several times since the war began in October 2023, but he called the current phase the “most critical.”
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.


Lebanon says Israel strikes in south kill two

Updated 36 min 54 sec ago
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Lebanon says Israel strikes in south kill two

  • An “Israeli enemy drone” struck a car in the town of Ain Baal in the coastal district of Tyre
  • The Israeli army said its forces struck a Hezbollah operative

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two people in the south on Wednesday, the latest attacks despite a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

An “Israeli enemy drone” struck a car in the town of Ain Baal in the coastal district of Tyre, the ministry said.

The Israeli army said its forces struck a Hezbollah operative in the Tyre area, saying he was “responsible for establishing the necessary infrastructure for the production of precise surface-to-surface missiles in the area.”

The health ministry later said an Israeli strike on the southern town of Yater “killed one person and wounded another.”

An official from Yater said the strike killed a man who was using a bulldozer to remove debris from his home which was damaged during the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the state-run National News Agency reported.

It was the third consecutive day of Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Israel said it killed two Hezbollah members over the previous two days.

Israel has kept up strikes on its northern neighbor despite a November truce that sought to halt
more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of full-blown war.

Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.

Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic.”

The Lebanese army has been deploying in the south as Israeli forces have withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure there.

The truce was based on a United Nations Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only people to bear arms in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

Lebanon has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw its remaining troops.

US deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus said on Tuesday that Lebanon still has “more” to do in disarming Hezbollah following the war.


Trump ‘frustrated’ by Gaza war expansion: Report

Updated 46 min 40 sec ago
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Trump ‘frustrated’ by Gaza war expansion: Report

  • US president said to be ‘upset’ at images of suffering Palestinian children
  • He reportedly told Israeli PM via aides that he wants war to be ‘wrapped up’

London: US President Donald Trump is “frustrated” by Israel’s expansion of the Gaza war and is “upset” at images of suffering Palestinian children, White House officials have reportedly said.

Two administration officials told Axios that Trump has relayed messages to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via aides that he wants the war to be “wrapped up.”

One official told Axios: “The president is frustrated about what is happening in Gaza. He wants the war to end, he wants the hostages to come home, he wants aid to go in and he wants to start rebuilding Gaza.” 

Trump is said to be personally annoyed at Netanyahu, who “he doesn’t even like,” The Times was told.

It follows Trump’s high-profile tour of the Middle East, comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, which is mediating ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.

During the trip, which notably lacked a stop in Israel, Trump “appeared genuinely concerned by the suffering of Gazans,” sources told The Times.

However, the White House is reluctant to openly criticize Tel Aviv’s actions, and officials from both countries deny that Trump is prepared to “abandon” support for Israel.

Trump last week said he wanted to help the “starving” people in Gaza. During talks with Arab leaders, he pledged to facilitate the entry of more aid to the Palestinian enclave.

His Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has presented plans for a ceasefire deal that would lead to the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

But Netanyahu’s decision to expand the Gaza war has frustrated hopes of a deal, despite his office saying he had agreed to a plan based on Witkoff’s proposals.

One Israeli official told Axios: “If the president wants a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza he needs to put much more pressure on both sides.”

A White House official told Axios that Trump believes the Gaza war is preventing him from enacting his plans for the region.

“The president sees a real chance for peace and prosperity in the region, but the war in Gaza is the last hot spot and he wants it to end,” the official said.