The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced on July 31 his intention to ban TikTok in the country. A few days later, he signed an executive order that will prohibit US companies from making transactions with the company ByteDance, owner of the short video platform. The goal of the White House is, according to official statements, to protect "the national security, economy and foreign policy" of the United States. Instagram has taken advantage of escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington to promote Reels, a proposal launched last week in more than 50 countries around the world to compete with TikTok.
Like the Chinese social network, Reels allows the user to create and discover short and entertaining videos. In this case, within Instagram. Users can record and edit 15 second videos and various audio clips with different effects. To do this, they just have to open the camera within Instagram as if they were going to make a story and select the option to record a reel .
The reels can be recorded in a series of clips - one at a time - all at once or using the videos saved in the gallery. Once published, they will appear in the feed . That is, on the screen that users see when entering a certain profile. If you have a public account, they can appear in the "explores" tab and, therefore, can be seen by other users. Currently, Instagram highlights the reels as soon as you enter this tab.
Instagram's proposal is very similar to what millions of users do daily on TikTok. And even the Chinese social network has joked about it. "Well, this looks familiar," the US TikTok account posted on Twitter following the launch of the new Instagram feature. In addition to the fact that both platforms are designed to create and discover short and entertaining videos, they have similar tools to achieve this. For example, augmented reality effects, a timer, or a function to speed up or slow down the video.
It is not the first time that the Facebook-owned company has introduced similar functions to those of its competition to counter the success of other platforms. He did it with Snapchat in 2016 by launching the stories (stories). Users can from then on share short videos or photos on Instagram that are automatically deleted 24 hours after they are published. For the social network owned by Facebook, the play went very well. It remains to be seen whether with Reels it will also be able to capture millions of tiktokers.
Growth and controversies about TikTok privacy
TikTok was launched in September 2016. Since then, it has not stopped growing, especially during the pandemic. It is already present in more than 2 billion phones around the world, according to data from SensorTower. Between April and June, the app was downloaded 300 million times, a figure reached only by Zoom in the quarantine months. Facebook and WhatsApp stayed at just over 150 million.
But the app has also caused suspicions in different countries, citing the fear that the social network will be used by Chinese intelligence. India banned 59 Chinese apps in June for national security, including TikTok. The European Data Protection Committee (EDPB) has established a task force to take a "more general look at TikTok data processing and practices in the European Union." And, already in December of last year, the US Army prohibited its soldiers from having an account in the app, arguing that its use could represent a threat to national security.
Microsoft negotiates your purchase
While the Trump Administration has TikTok in its sights, Microsoft has announced its intention to buy the social network from ByteDance. If the negotiations go ahead, Microsoft would not acquire all of TikTok, but the service in the markets of the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. ByteDance, which denies sharing information about its users outside of China with Beijing, would continue to own the social network in the rest of the countries and its headquarters would continue in the capital of the Asian giant.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Donald Trump have discussed this purchase and the privacy concerns raised by the government, according to the tech giant. Microsoft insists that one of its main objectives is to guarantee the security of the data of the millions of users of the platform. To do this, it intends to perform a "full review" of your security.
“Microsoft would ensure that all private data of US TikTok users is transferred to and remains in the United States. To the extent that such data is currently stored or backed up outside the United States, Microsoft will ensure that this data is removed from servers outside the country after being transferred, ”says the technology.
Both ByteDance and Microsoft have notified the US Foreign Investment Committee of their intention to "explore a preliminary proposal that would involve the purchase of the TikTok service in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand." The deadline that has been set to conclude these talks is September 15. Trump has warned that if Microsoft or any other US company has not reached an agreement with ByteDance that day, it will block the social network in its country. In addition, it requires that the US Treasury receive a portion of the sale of the social network.
How to create a reel
Instagram includes different creative editing tools to create a reel:
- Audio: the app allows you to search for a song from the Instagram music library. The user can also use their own original audio simply by recording a reel with it. “When sharing a teel with original audio, your audio will be attributed to your account, and, if you have a public account, people can create Reels with their audio by selecting 'Use audio' from your Reel,” explains Instagram.
- Augmented reality effects : it is possible to select between different effects created both by Instagram and by creators around the world.
- Timer and countdown : user can set the timer to record any of their clips hands-free. Once it is given to record, a countdown appears before starting and then the terminal captures for the time that has been selected.
- Align : the app helps to align the objects of a previous clip before recording the next one. This helps create seamless transitions for example when changing clothes or adding friends to the reel.
- Speed : you can speed up or slow down part of the selected video or audio. This can help you keep up or make slow motion videos.