TikTok is a video-sharing social network service owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based internet technology company founded in 2012.
The Beginning of the End
On June 30, 2020, users began noticing that the app no longer allowed them to access the platform in India. All users were greeted with a message that stated: “Dear users, we are in the process of complying with the Government of India’s directive to block 59 apps. Ensuring the privacy and security of all our users in India remains our utmost priority.” The banning of TikTok in India gave a significant blow to the company as India was the company’s largest market. Hong Kong has since followed suit this week with the company announcing it will no longer be available in the special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China. Now the United States is on the verge of banning TikTok and Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is citing security concerns for the ban.
Why Would the U.S. Ban TikTok?
The app has been repeatedly accused of being a threat to national security. U.S. Politicians are alleging that the company may “support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.” The company has pushed back stating that all U.S. user data is stored in the U.S. and there is a backup in Singapore, in May a spokesperson for the company said that these concerns are “unfounded.”
Will the U.S. Ban TikTok?
As tensions are rising between the U.S. and China, it appears that national security and politics play a role in the potential banning of TikTok in the U.S. Whether or not the U.S. will ban TikTok is still up in the air. We’ll have to continue to monitor the situation and see how the United States handles TikTok.