Tiktok is getting banned in America

Question

Privacy concerns motivate US lawmakers to create a bill that protects US data from being shared with foreign adversaries. Three US lawmakers have introduced bipartisan legislation intending to ban TikTok in the US. Concerns about the potential for Chinese government influence over the app and the privacy implications for American data primarily drive the proposed policy.

Comments

This claim is true. According to an article written by The NY Times, more than two dozen states have already banned Tik-Tok on government-issued devices. You can see this in many colleges and schools where they have banned the app their their Wi-Fi.

Answer 1

So there are actually a lot of iterations of this bill, both in state and national government, being constructed for multiple reasons. News headlines also kind of deceptively say "ban TikTok" when the bill itself is actually more nuanced and widespread than that, and could actually be be concerning. Your article is from December 2022, when the bill was first unveiled, but it has been edited since then, so let me share some articles with updates on what has happened since then.

• In March 2023, Politico reports that the updated version of the bill was shared again. "A bipartisan group of 12 senators — buoyed by a timely endorsement from the White House — introduced a bill on Tuesday that would give the federal government new powers to restrict, and potentially ban, technologies emanating from China and five other nations deemed to be U.S. adversaries. And while the RESTRICT Act isn’t technically aimed just at TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app is clearly top of mind for the bill’s chief sponsors, Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and John Thune (R S.D.)." However, this attempt in March did not pass. 
• In April 2023, the New York Times reports that Montana's governor signed a total ban of TikTok. TikTok/ByteDance reportedly would have to pay Montana a fine if they continue operating there, as would Apple and Google should they continue to have it on their app stores.
• According to Reuters, as of July 2023: "The legislation endorsed by the White House would grant the Commerce Department new authority to review, block, and address a range of transactions involving foreign information and communications technology that pose national security risks."
• What this means is that the Commerce Department basically has the right to decide for Americans what "is or isn't a national security risk," meaning that basically anything they don't like or approve of could be banned, which I believe is a violation of rights provided to Americans in the Constitution. So I'm very interested in seeing how they continue to amend the bill and how it goes.

Comments

You did very good with showing where you got your evidence from that proves that TikTok getting banned in the United States is exaggerated

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Great argument to show how much sensationalism is out there.

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The exaggeration has been showed in your post because of all the detail you provided

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This was an excellent fact check. The multiple sources show good credibility and you did an amazing job of dissecting each source and showing how that proved the claim to misleading.

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This is a great response to this claim. You gave many reliable sources, and made your point very clear and precise.

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You did a great job summarizing what you took away from all of the sources regarding TikTok getting banned. I liked how you had individual bullet points regarding each source and linking it. Overall, this is an example of a great fact check.

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This is very well fact-checked as it shows the evidence that you proved it with and lists the articles from which you are getting your information form. You also dissected the evidence very well and showed why there is a bill that is in talks for potentially banning tik tok.

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I am very impressed with this fact-check! It is robust with a significant amount of information and multiple sources but structured in a way that makes it easy to follow. I appreciated how I was able to absorb key information without a lot of reading. Great job!

Answer 2

The anti-social ccp act protects Americans from the threat posed by certain foreign adversaries using current or potential future social media companies that those foreign adversaries control. Lawmakers are arguing that Tik-Tok is in violation of this act.

https://gallagher.house.gov/media/press-releases/gallagher-applauds-bipartisan-momentum-ban-tiktok#:~:text=This%20bill%20would%20protect%20Americans,other%20foreign%20countries%20of%20concern.

Comments

Yeah it's gonna be something that'll be fought about for a long time

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Good post, I have already seen many ads about tik-tok settlements that they are offering to people who have used the app.

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I like how you brought up the CCP as it will definitely be a great part of whether TikTok is banned in the United States or not.

Answer 3

It is true that they are TRYING to ban it. But there's no guarantee it happens. So true but the post is sensationalized, clickbait title.

Montana tried banning it, leading to TikTok suing the state

https://www.nytimes.com/article/tiktok-ban.html

Indeed both the previous administration and now some lawmakers wanted and tried to get it banned
 

A proposal to ban TikTok in the U.S. has garnered bipartisan support and raised bigger questions about data access laws.

The FBI and U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into TikTok on March 17, 2023, including allegations that the company spied on American journalists. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to defend the application on March 24, 2023. His testimony touched on TikTok's consumer privacy and data security policies, the platform's mental health impact and security concerns about the platform's parent company, ByteDance.

This is not the first time the United States has threatened to ban TikTok. In 2020, the Trump administration attempted to use its emergency power to block the application.

https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/TikTok-bans-explained-Everything-you-need-to-know?Offer=abt_pubpro_AI-Insider

Comments

Thank you for this because I knew Florida implemented a ban, but did not know that Montana also implemented one.

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This is a very informative fact-check. How would you rate the claim? True? False? Misleading? Don't forget to add a rating to each fact-check. Thanks!

Answer 4

This is true and false. Tiktok is not getting banned everywhere in the U.S., but certain places like Florida has signed a bill for TikTok getting a ban for children.

https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/desantis-signs-bill-banning-tiktok-in-florida-schools/

Answer 5

Although TikTok is facing the possibility of a ban in the near future, the government has not passed a ban as of late.

- TechRadar: "Back in September 2020, the US Department of Commerce issued a ban that ordered both Apple and Google to remove TikTok and WeChat from their US app stores. This ban was ultimately blocked by a federal judge and eventually revoked by President Biden last year, but the incident gives us a taste of what could happen if TikTok's owners refuse to divest their stakes in the app." 

TikTok ban: will the app be banned in the US and how would it work? | TechRadar 

Comments

Wouldn't the claim be false? There's no conclusive evidence indicating that TikTok is getting banned. It's all speculation about the future, no?

Answer 6

This question was originally posted in early August, and now it's September 18th, so there's some new info to look at. 

Bans have been happening for months now, and both dominant parties have been enacting them. This Wikipedia page has a nice list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_TikTok_in_the_United_States#:~:text=Public%20bans-,Montana,from%20offering%20TikTok%20for%20download.

If you scroll down to the sources, you can see a plethora of articles about different areas where TikTok has been banned. 

So has it been banned in *some* areas of the US? Yes. Here's what the Wiki page said (and I checked the sources the page cites, so it is reliable, Wikipedia just compiles it all nicely)

TikTok has been banned in:

• US Army
• US Navy
• Government devices in 34 states
• Montana (takes effect in 2024)
• Government devices in NYC
• a bunch of universities that brought me over the character limit for this post

Is TikTok getting banned in America? Yes. Is it getting banned in all of America? No. The phrasing is easy to misunderstand, so I am going to rate this as misleading.

Edit: To clarify, I linked Wikipedia's page because there's not enough allowed characters to post the entire reference section. I used the reference section to fact check, and the sources were reliable.

Comments

This is a very comprehensive and well put together list but wouldn't you say that the banning could be indicative of an inevitable ban nationwide? The wording of the fact check is rather broad so I suppose it can be taken in many different ways but with the slow march towards banning I find it unlikely that the banning would stop or even slow down. However I do agree that currently it is not getting "banned in all of America" but as for the future it is becoming a very likely possibility.

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Why did you use Wikipedia as a source? That can be edited by anyone at any time as long as they have the evidence or sources. I would try to look for an individual source on the matter, and then dig deeper to see where they get the information from.

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@zach.shapero_ As I stated in my post, the references the Wikipedia page uses are listed at the bottom. I checked that list for credibility. Wikipedia is not a reliable source on its own, but it can prove useful for compiling information as long as it is checked.

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@mrock6 I honestly do not see that as a possibility. Even Montana is facing legal battles for the ban. The whole debacle has honestly died down since the hypocrisy of coming after TikTok when Facebook exists is coming more into light. Not all states even have a movement to ban, as the compiled map I linked shows. Overall, it seems to have been sensationalized.

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Your fact-check is super informative. I like that you listed the entities that have banned TikTok in the U.S., but I'd love to see a more solid source besides Wikipedia. Do you have one?