The well-known and popular short video application, TikTok, could be in serious trouble. Recent reports could indicate how TikTok could be banned in the US if they don’t sell the app by Chinese owners.
TikTok completely off the iPhone in the US
According to media reports Wall Street Journal it appears that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US asked ByteDance for this request. The report indicates that this would be a fairly significant change in policy coming from the administration.
He further added that TikTok has been under immense pressure from politicians, more specifically US Republicans. The main reason was to expose the app as a source of security risk. This report continues with the most recent news from yesterday and that they hope that the United Kingdom will also publish the ban on TikTok on work smartphones and this would be immediately.
TikTok itself contradicts this, indicating that the sale is not the answer to this security threat, after promising more than 1,500 million dollars used only for data security for those who have this app in the United States and the Chinese government. Through a statement, the company also mentioned that if “national security is the objective” it did not help the problem at all to stop investing. Changing ownership would not have any practical effect on data or access. The company says that the best way to contribute something to the issue is with “transparent, US-based protection of US users’ data and systems, with robust third-party monitoring, examination, and verification.”
TikTok in a tight situation
The WSJ media reports that there are negotiations with Cfius about the security of the data that is on TikTok. Although this process takes more than two years and still nothing is clear for some time. According to the report, US high-ups are quite aware of Chinese security and how it “forces companies to hand over their customers’ data.”
This matter also involved Apple in the past due to the regularization of user data in China. For its part, TikTok plans to invest the money mentioned in this post to better protect US data in the US and improve transparency. At the time of the launch of iPhone 15 it could be that the app does not even exist on this device.