The US has announced an immediate ban on China’s video hosting app TikTok on all the government owned devices. It has given the officials 30 days to ensure removal of TikTok app from all the official phones
The US government’s decision comes after unverified reports of TikTok developers unethically accessing and harvesting the users’ data on the app and handing it out to the Chinese government
Canada and the European Union had announced similar bans on TikTok app citing threat to users’ data
Source: Business of apps
Chinese authorities have retaliated to the ban on TikTok which is being used by 600 million Chinese users daily. As per reports, TikTok generated an estimated revenue of $4.6 billion in 2021 with a 142% increase year-on-year
Chinese government spokeswoman Mao Ning told the media, "How unsure of itself can the world's top superpower like the US be to fear young people's favourite app like that.”
India was among the first nations along with Pakistan to announce a ban on Chinese app TikTok in 2020. TikTok had created a rage in India with more than 200 million users till 2020. The ByteDance-owned app became a source of revenue for several youngsters in India but it came under lens for data security
TikTok influencers who enjoyed massive followership on the app were hit hard by the ban. Some of the top TikTokers in India such as Riyaz Aly were being followed by more than 26 million TikTokers before the app was banned. Currently, Riyaz Aly’s Instagram account has over 27 million followers
This isn’t the first time a Chinese app was banned by a country. India had earlier banned 250 Chinese apps including PUBG Mobile, AliExpress, CamScanner, ShareIt and WeChat over security concerns