＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
1. Local governments suspend TikTok usage one after another
On August 5, 2020, Osaka Governor Yoshimura announced that he had temporarily suspended the prefecture’s official account and business partnership agreement for TikTok, a video-sharing app operated by the Chinese company ByteDance.
Following concerns about information leaks to China, the prefecture inquired with the national government about security issues.
The national government responded that it was “closely monitoring security developments,” and explained that “if there are no security issues, it is appropriate to temporarily suspend the app.”
Regarding the app, Saitama Prefecture suspended its official account in mid-July, citing “concerns about information leaks.” Kobe City also made its official account private on August 3 for similar reasons.
Given the recent string of disturbing and unsettling incidents, such as the frequent occurrence of “mysterious plant seeds” being sent from China, the continued navigation of Chinese warships around the Senkaku Islands, and the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law, I believe the responses of local governments, including Osaka Prefecture, are appropriate.
The US’s order to close Chinese consulates on the grounds that they are espionage bases has also exacerbated concerns.
On August 5, US Secretary of State Pompeo stated, “Chinese companies’ apps such as TikTok, WeChat, and others are censorship tools for the Chinese Communist Party and pose a serious threat to the personal information of US citizens.” He announced strengthened measures to prevent personal information theft and other crimes, including the removal of Chinese apps from US app stores.
The US also plans to restrict the cloud services of companies such as Alibaba, the largest online retailer, and Baidu, the search engine, in order to prevent access to COVID-19 research data.
Looking at how China has responded to the coronavirus, with city lockdowns and surveillance and control that seem to disregard individual privacy, it is not surprising that some people are concerned about information leaks due to the use of TikTok.
2. Safety concerns surrounding TikTok
(1) National Security and Privacy Concerns
There are also cases where use is restricted at the national level due to national security and privacy concerns. U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo has stated that “use could result in personal information falling into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”
(2) Youth Protection Measures
Users can report inappropriate content, restrict viewing to approved users or block specific users, and set their accounts to private.
Videos that are potentially dangerous or inappropriate are detected mechanically and manually reviewed, and if deemed dangerous, a “warning message about viewing the video” is displayed.
This issue involves similar issues to the “censorship” section below.
(3) Censorship
On the mainland China version, videos deemed inappropriate by the Chinese government cannot be posted. There seems to be debate and suspicion as to whether the international version of TikTok also rejects videos deemed inappropriate by the Chinese government.
In September 2019, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that the app’s moderators regularly censor posts related to Tibetan independence, the Tiananmen Square incident, and Falun Gong.