The dispute on whether the popular social media video streaming platform TikTok is being banned has been gathering traction since summer 2020.
The Trump administration acted to have the app banned in the U.S., beginning the process, and the country of India has successfully had the app banned in their country since around the same time.
However, when Biden took over the White House he reversed this decision and TikTok still remains freely and widely used by millions in the U.S. and beyond.
Whether it will be banned successfully down the line is still a point of contention between the Biden administration and leading minds in the fields of economy, cybersecurity, and data science.
The main argument behind banning TikTok is over data concerns.
TikTok is owned and run by a company in China and there have been long-standing concerns (and empirical data and evidence) about the data within TikTok produced by citizens of the world being collected, harvested and even sold by these Chinese creators.
We currently have a war against data selling in the world and it is a huge topical issue. If you haven’t already, you should check out the Netflix documentary about Cambridge Analytica and how the U.S. elections were influenced by the collection and manipulation of Facebook data.
Most people who use TikTok are not aware of how their data is being used and what exactly they are giving away. For the vast majority of users, the platform is harmless fun where creators post dances, recipes, and funny cat videos to share with friends and strangers alike.
To the people using TikTok, it doesn’t feel dangerous and it doesn’t appear that anything is wrong.
But is something wrong?
Very potentially, yes.
Forbes writer Arthur Herman has written a couple of articles on the matter and he views TikTok as a, “dangerous prospect to national security.”
It is not that the data being processed from TikTok is confidential data about American secrets and that is what is putting people at risk. It is rather that TikTok categorically is collecting data, by the bucketload, and this collection of data is now something that can be used as a weapon in today’s climate.
We might see TikTok as a harmless app but it is important to be aware of what underlies the apps we are using and what data breaches they can easily make.
As Herman writes, “ Defeating TikTok and WeChat are skirmishes in a much bigger war, the war for the high-tech future. Our teens will survive without TikTok; our freedom won’t if we lose the larger conflict”.
This doesn’t seem like an issue that is going to magically go away just because Biden has reversed the decision and so to answer your question, no TikTok isn’t being banned right now but there is a lot of evidence suggesting that it will or should be down the line. Maybe data collection issues could be changed by the company and new guidelines could come into play. Or maybe a new app could swoop in and save the day.
Who knows… For now, watch this space.
TL DR: Is TikTok being banned? No, no right now, but maybe in the future and maybe that is a good thing for us and our data.