With India’s TikTok ban, the world’s digital walls grow higher

The global internet is fracturing. And people like Anusmita Dutta are paying the price.

Dutta, 24, joined TikTok three years ago and now has more than 350,000 followers on the video app. From her home in Kolkata, in eastern India, she records funny skits, monologues, slice-of-life sketches — all stuff, she says, that people can easily relate to. She also finds videos from every corner of the earth using the app’s Discover feature.

TikTok makes her feel connected to the wider world. Which is why India’s decision this week to ban TikTok and scores of other Chinese apps was such a disappointment.