Will Türkiye ban TikTok?

TikTok was recently banned by the Kyrgyzstan government, and they were quite clear about their reasons. They announced that the ban was put in place to protect children from information that could negatively affect their moral education and harm their psychological well-being. The Kyrgyz state made this decision based on the negative impact TikTok has on the country's youth.

In their statement, they essentially said, "TikTok drags users into a virtual world of short clips. After watching these, some young individuals attempt to replicate specific videos that pose life-threatening risks. Such addictive content has a detrimental effect on the emotional well-being of the younger generation."

Let's pause here for a moment! Kyrgyzstan is a country with a population of 6 million. They made a historic decision, relying on sociological, psychological, and pedagogical outcomes, to protect their dwindling young population from China's virtual impositions. They didn't mention "intelligence" or provide "public safety" justifications; they banned TikTok because they believed the biggest threat was the corruption of their young population by senseless trends.

Now, let's turn our attention to Türkiye. We have over 30 million TikTok users in our country. That's a staggering number, and this user count alone places Türkiye in the top 10 countries worldwide with the most TikTok users. If TikTok is indeed collecting intelligence information through its platform, as claimed by the United States and other Western nations, then we have a serious problem. Judges, doctors, military personnel, police officers, teachers, nurses – TikTok is widely used by public servants in our country. There's no doubt that everyone has seen TikTok videos where soldiers display their full regalia with pride, and there are thousands of videos tagged with #asker (soldier) and similar hashtags. Is there any safeguard in place? Based on what we see, it seems like there isn't.

If we're not concerned about it being a tool for cyber intelligence, then we can argue, just like in the cases of Malaysia and Kyrgyzstan, that TikTok is a "cultural invasion force" from China. For instance, if we ask a dedicated teacher who has devoted themselves to their profession and Turkish youth, "What is the biggest issue in education and schools today?" the answer will undoubtedly be "TikTok." The situation is even more dire. Not too far in the future, a generation that has been exposed to TikTok's influence will be in positions of power, and they won't have a significant concern like cyber defense.

Perhaps it's not talked about or taken seriously enough due to its 30 million users. However, this is a "major vulnerability" for our country. Hopefully, the authorities will take action as soon as possible because we're already running late.