Wow: is TikTok really going to be blocked in America?

For some time now, there have been rumors that TikTok is being banned in the United States. Rumors that I, to be honest, never took very seriously. It turns out that it is much more serious than just rumors: yesterday there was a hearing about the future of TikTok in America.

The banning of TikTok in the United States dates back to the era when Trump was president (thankfully that is over), but has been picked up again by the current president Joe Biden. This is because the app came under fire due to its parent company ByteDance: they allegedly use the private data of TikTok users for various purposes: for example, to track the locations of journalists. That is also the reason why no one working for the White House or the government is allowed to have the app on their phone or use TikTok in any other way.

President Biden has demanded that ByteDance sell the app and if that does not happen, they risk being banned in America. The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, tried to convince the U.S. government during the hearing yesterday that the app is indeed safe and that a ban on TikTok is therefore not necessary. In America, there are about 150 million users on TikTok, so if this ban goes through, it would have quite significant consequences.

Website The Verge has made a detailed report of the hearing that took place yesterday and was at times quite embarrassing: for example, when congressman Richard Hudson asked the CEO ‘if TikTok has access to the home wifi network’. Difficult to conduct such a hearing when there are people who have no idea how the app works or how the internet works at all.

During the hearing, it became clear that not only privacy would be a reason to ban TikTok, but also the drug use and violence found on the app would be harmful to (especially young) users.

The hearing lasted a total of about five hours, but it will not be the last one before a decision is made. However, things do not look very good: there is still a reasonable chance that TikTok will indeed be banned in America. Instagram will probably be very happy about that, but I also bet that about 150 million users will rise up significantly if it really happens.