Claim: TikTok will get banned in the US.

Question

There have been many speculations on whether or not TikTok will be banned because the Chinese government will use user data. We've all heard that TikTok would be getting banned for a few years now and it never happened. So, I personally believe that it will not be banned, however, you never know now since the Senate passed a bill to ban it. What do you think?

Answer 1

This is an opinion produced to predict whether TikTok will get banned or not rather than conclusive evidence. According to Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who serves on the House China Committee, does not think that it will get banned. He addresses how it is a danger that a company that is based in a potentially unfriendly country can easily access 140 million Americans' personal data, but does not confirm an incoming TikTok ban.

Comments

Don't forget to add a source link for any data or information you add (re: Krishnamoorthi's prediction). Good job on the fact-check overall. You're correct in saying that a claim that makes a prediction cannot be fact-checked!

Answer 2

This claim is partially true. According to cfr.org, the U.S. government banned Tiktok from FEDERAL devices. This has not led to a ban on Tiktok on personal devices and will not. This was due to user data concerns, despite this, Tiktok is not the leading cause of data concerns, in fact, it is the U.S. data brokers that are more of a threat than Tiktok, where ANYONE can buy data from anywhere. TikTok is no more of a threat than any other platform.

Answer 3

As others have pointed, the Tik Tok app is now banned on US federal devices due to suspicion of data harvesting. Shiona McCallum, a writer for the BBC, also published a similar article 3 days ago detailing how European Commission staff (an executive branch of the EU) have also been prohibited from accessing the app through government devices. It seems that the US is not the only country with concerns of China's user data collection, and has taken precautions to protect government data. However, Tik Tok will likely never go away, being downloaded over a billion times around the world. It's also important to remember that US created social media apps such as Facebook and Snapchat have had their own controversies appropriating user data. Because of the fact that Tik Tok is made by ByteDance, a CCP backed Chinese company, people are more wary of such practices. It is highly unlikely that Tik Tok will ever be banned in the United States, and even if it happens that will not stop millions of touch-starved users from downloading it on alternative sites.

Link to BBC article: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64743991

Answer 4

The concerns about TikTok and its handling of user data have been ongoing for several years, and there have been several instances of government action related to the app. In August 2020, the Trump administration issued an executive order to ban TikTok, citing national security concerns related to the app's Chinese ownership. However, the ban was temporarily blocked by a federal judge and later put on hold by the Biden administration, which conducted a review of the app's security risks.

 

In July 2021, the Senate passed a bill that would ban TikTok from all government devices, citing concerns about the app's data security practices. While this bill does not directly affect the general public's access to TikTok, it reflects ongoing concerns about the app's data practices and potential national security risks.

 

Overall, it is difficult to predict whether TikTok will be banned in the future. However, it is important to be aware of the ongoing concerns about the app's data practices and potential security risks, and to take steps to protect your personal information when using any app or online service.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/tech/senate-tiktok-ban-devices/index.html#:~:text=CNN%20%E2%80%94%20The%20Senate%20passed%20legislation%20Wednesday%20evening,bill%20authored%20by%20Missouri%20Republican%20Sen.%20Josh%20Hawley.

Answer 5

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/why-tiktok-is-being-banned-for-some-federal-employees

Although TikTok has not yet been decided to be banned in our country completely, it has been decided that the White House has reported that, "U.S. federal agencies 30 days to delete popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices amid growing concerns about security." There are talks about banning the app in the U.S. completely but some argue that is a violation of our freedom of speech and could potentially be getting rid of jobs for influencers who participate in creating content for a job.