TikTok is facing another- wait, let’s reword that instead: TikTok continues to face legal challenges in the US, this time with Republican Senator Marco Rubio introducing bipartisan legislation to ban the app from operating in the US, primarily due to concerns around data collection, along with TikTok’s supposed linkage to the Chinese Government. 

As Rubio explains: 

“This isn’t about creative videos – this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day. We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections. We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China. There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company. It is time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok for good.”

Ban The Clips! 

The bill wants TikTok to be erased from the face of the country to avoid sharing data with ‘America’s foremost adversary’, with a large portion of American regulators and political figures believing that the app is being used as a surveillance device by Chinese spies. That honestly makes for an interesting plot in an action movie. 

This marks the latest in a long-running series of legal accusations against the app, which almost already got entirely banned from the US before, of course, this was under the leadership of then-President Donald Trump. The basis of that ban was built on the same concerns that the app is tracking the information of US users and sharing it with the CCP. Meanwhile, there have also been suggestions of algorithmic manipulation to ‘seed pro-China sentiment’.

Just last week, the state of Indiana filed a lawsuit which accused both TikTok and its parent company ByteDance of violating the state’s consumer protection laws, and in particular, failing to safeguard young people, while FBI Director Chris Wray, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, and Republican Senator Josh Hawley have all voiced their concerns around the app’s connections with the CCP in recent weeks.

So now, the US House of Representatives is once again summoned to assess the app and decide whether it should really be banned. This is clearly not something new for TikTok, but it does remain a rather significant threat and likely the biggest challenge to its Social Media reign. However, recent numbers have indicated that TikTok might be starting to slow down, which could eventually see it outlawed in the US. Will it happen? What would the implications be if it does? 

The Wrap

Will users switch over to either Reels or YouTube Shorts if ever TikTok does end up being banned? Or will that mark the beginning of the end of the whole short-form video trend? At this stage, it feels that TikTok will likely remain, but that doesn’t mean that the tide won’t potentially quickly turn. One misstep and whatever rickety bridge the relationship between the US and China TikTok sits upon could go crashing down. 

Sources 

https://bit.ly/3jetUmz