Being linked to bad news seems to be its own trend on TikTok; pretty crap, but these are the beans. So, here’s the latest to go on the dogpile – the US House Foreign Affairs Committee has recently voted to give President Joe Biden the power to ban the app, should he deem the move worthy, amid ongoing security discussions around its potential connection to the CCP.

The White House already announced a full ban on government-owned devices, which has then expanded to some 30 US states. The EU and Canada have recently followed suit, banning the app on their government devices, as tensions between China and the West continue to come to a boil.

Ban as Necessary

Earlier this month, the US ordered a Chinese balloon to be shot down, amid concerns that it was being used to spy on the US and Canada, while rumors of China’s continued support for Russia’s Ukrainian occupation have put it on a collision course with Western Governments.

Within this, TikTok has become a bigger focus. While the app has been under CFIUS review for almost two years, discussions around its future are now accelerating, which could see it banned outright in the US sometime soon. Here’s how TikTok responded to this news.

To be clear, this announcement doesn’t give Biden complete authority to just Leroy Jenkins ban TikTok on a whim – the US Senate is still required to give a sign-off before a ban could be implemented. It is, however, another step towards that next stage, which increasingly feels like it will lead to a TikTok ban, or at the very least, a significant change in direction for the app.

Former US President Donald Trump ordered TikTok to be sold to a US company in 2020, or face a bull ban in the region. Although that option is still an available route, which could eventually see TikTok under new management, as opposed to going dark in the US.

The Wrap

Then again, right now, a lot really banks on whatever China decides to do next, and whether it’ll be audacious enough to continue clashing with the US, and pretty much the rest of the world. The spy balloon incident feels like the turning point – basically, China felt butt-hurt that America shot down one of its trillion, warehouse-churned weather balloons, refitted to hold potential surveillance equipment, to the point that relations have dwindled to the point of international conflict. Human rationality at its finest. Anyway, if banning TikTok helps avoid total war, then, by all means, ban away, otherwise, continue negotiations.

Sources

http://bit.ly/3YkokO5