TikTok may face a ban in the United States after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner expressed national security concerns.
The app is growing in popularity in the U.S. because it is owned by a Chinese company.
That means there is the potential for data on U.S. citizens to be transferred to China.
With 200 million downloads in the U.S. alone, there is also the risk that a state actor is using TikTok to influence American citizens.
One of the five FCC commissioners, Brendan Carr, tells Axios, “I don’t believe there is a way forward for anything other than a ban.”
Carr doesn’t believe it’s possible to sufficiently protect user data so that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
The creators of TikTok could find themselves without a platform if U.S. lawmakers share the FCC’s concerns.
Read more about the situation and what could happen because of the proposed ban.
Is TikTok banned in the U.S.?
The short answer is we don’t know yet.
The FCC has no authority to regulate TikTok, although it has considerable influence over those who do.
For example, Congress previously responded to Carr’s concerns about Chinese telecommunications companies, which led to the banning of Huawei.
Whether lawmakers will act this time remains to be seen. U.S. politicians view TikTok differently, with some using it as a platform to reach voters and others openly condemning it.
TikTok is currently in talks with the Council on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), offering to turn over some of its business to an American company.
However, Carr does not believe the parties agree. Carr tells CNN in an interview:
“Maybe the deal that CFIUS ends up making is an amazing, airtight deal, but at this point I find it very, very difficult to look at TickTock’s behavior, thinking that we’re going to carve out a technical design that they can’t get around.”
What does TikTok have to say about this?
A TikTok spokesman tells CNN that the company is confident it will reach an agreement with the U.S. government:
“Commissioner Carr has no role in confidential discussions with the U.S. government related to TikTok and is unable to discuss what those negotiations entail. We are confident that we are on our way to reaching an agreement with the U.S. government that satisfies all reasonable national security interests.”
For now, TikTok in the U.S. is still operating as usual, though it might be a good idea for the creators to have a backup plan in case of a ban. YouTube shorts are always an option, and it pays better there, too.
