Is TikTok going to be banned in the United States in 2023? The Biden administration has given TikTok’s owners, a Chinese company named ByteDance, a choice: either sell ownership of the popular social media app, or be banned from operating within the U.S.
This isn’t the first time that the U.S. government has threatened to ban TikTok. The U.S. is also not the first country to consider or implement such a drastic step.
So, how likely is a TikTok ban in America? Below, we’ll take a look at exactly what’s led to this situation and what it might mean for you.
Why is TikTok Likely to be Banned in the U.S.?
Recently, countries across the world are turning their backs on TikTok. In some parts of the world, there have already been partial or complete bans of the popular social media app. But in recent months, the spotlight has turned to the United States.
So, why are countries banning TikTok exactly? It’s all to do with the app’s origins. Governments across the world are concerned about TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, which is located in China.
Specifically, officials are concerned that the application — or ByteDance themselves — could hand over sensitive personal information to the Chinese government, whether willingly or not.
Chinese law can force companies to hand over such data in some circumstances. For example, the National Intelligence Law of 2017 requires companies to “support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work.”
There’s more. TikTok has been setting trends in many areas, including beauty, cultural awareness, personal finance, and more. But legislators are worried that the application could be abused to push misinformation and Chinese propaganda to a worldwide audience.
In 2020, it was revealed that TikTok moderators were being trained to suppress political content that didn’t align with Chinese government interests, or videos from people deemed “ugly” or “poor.”
And when it comes to TikTok being a national security risk? While it may sound like conjecture, recent news has suggested that there could be some legitimacy to the government’s concerns.
Just this month, the Wall Street Journal reported on how 30 state government-owned websites were infected by trackers belonging to TikTok’s parent company.
The NY Times has also highlighted how TikTok’s employees were said to be covertly spying on journalists to discover the source of an information leak.
Concerns have also been raised about TikTok’s data-gathering practices. The app requires information on virtually every bit of data that it can collect. Based on our analysis, the privacy risks of TikTok are a serious concern, and we don’t recommend people use it.
How the world is shunning TikTok: Timeline
This news from the United States is not a surprise, given that numerous other countries have already taken steps to limit the use of TikTok. Below, we’ve included a brief timeline that shows how the world has gradually begun to turn its back on the social media platform’s influence.
July 2018: Indonesia temporarily banned TikTok due to content that the Indonesian government named as “pornography, inappropriate content, and blasphemy.” TikTok promised to implement content filtering in Indonesia. Eight days later, the government lifted their ban.
November 2018: The Bangladeshi government banned TikTok in part of a wider crackdown on gambling and pornographic digital platforms, though the app was accessible again come 2020. In Summer 2021, one court issued another order to ban the app for three months.
April 2019: In India, the Madras High Court issued a TikTok ban, following advice that the application shows inappropriate content and puts minors at risk. Less than a month later, the ban was lifted after an appeal from ByteDance Technology.
June 2020: India implemented a blanket ban on TikTok, quoting national security concerns. The country relied on a law that permits the Indian government to block any digital media in the interest of Indian sovereignty. Users flocked instead to Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat.
August 2020: In the United States, Florida’s Department of Financial Services banned TikTok on all employee devices owned by the department. Nebraska followed closely behind with similar orders.
Trump announced that he would completely ban TikTok if the app didn’t distance itself from its Chinese owners – something that hasn’t come to pass, yet.
October 2020: Pakistan ordered their first TikTok ban due to “immoral, obscene, and vulgar” digital content. This was the first of four bans leading up to November 2021, all of which were subsequently lifted. The PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) continues to review the platform and its content.
November 2022: The Dutch Ministry of General Affairs in the Netherlands advised government employees to stop using the application until TikTok makes changes to its data protection policy. In the US, South Dakota banned state officials from using TikTok on government devices.
December 2022: Jordan announced a temporary ban after a police officer died during civil unrest protests. Six days later, the app was once again accessible. Meanwhile, Taiwan ordered a ban of TikTok on all public sector devices following advice from the FBI in the U.S., stating that the app poses a national security risk.
South Carolina requested a TikTok ban on all state government devices. TikTok was also banned by Maryland’s Office of Security Management. Similar application bans followed in Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Alabama, and more. Indiana’s Attorney General sued TikTok.
February 2023: The Canadian government banned TikTok from all government-owned devices, following advice from the country’s Chief Information Officer. The European Parliament outlawed TikTok on all staff devices.
March 2023 (Belgium): Belgium banned TikTok across all federal employee devices, citing cybersecurity, misinformation, and privacy worries. Denmark’s Ministry of Defence announced that TikTok is banned on all employee devices.
Latvia, Norway, and the United Kingdom followed suit, ordering bans on any electronic devices used by government employees. In the United Kingdom, the BBC advised all employees to remove the app unless explicitly using it for work purposes. Australia announces a ban on all government devices.
At present, TikTok is banned from state and federal government devices in a total of 32 US states, and that number is expected to grow.
How Can the U.S. Enforce a Ban on TikTok?
The U.S. hasn’t yet set out how a countrywide TikTok ban would work. On paper, it’s likely that the Biden administration would introduce a bill allowing them to ban technology that they deem as a national security risk.
From here, it’d probably be a case of using this to strong-arm tech giants, like Apple and Google, into removing TikTok, or other apps deemed a risk, from the App Store and Play Store.
Currently, Congress is giving consideration to legislation known as the RESTRICT act (Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology), raised in the Senate on March 7, 2023. If it’s passed, this bill would allow the government to investigate the way that a technology company operates. If a national security threat is suspected, the Secretary of State may investigate and potentially ban a product or service.
This follows from the Anti-Social CCP Act, recently reintroduced by U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Angus King, which was created to block transactions from any social media corporations with ties to countries including Russia and China.
The Biden administration has not explicitly mentioned TikTok when considering the RESTRICT Act. However, it’s thought that the popular social media app has spurred this potential new legislation. And if found in breach of the legislation, punishments may include fines of up to $1m and/or up to 20 years in prison.
What Does the RESTRICT Act Cover?
On the surface, the RESTRICT Act appears to have made its intentions clear. Most media sources have focused on the powers it would give the U.S. to investigate and potentially ban software products.
However, like any proposed new bill, the documentation is extensive and covers a lot of ground. Much of the wording is also quite vague, meaning that the act could be used to potentially ban any technology product in the future.
Some of this information has concerned users online, who have dived deeper into the fine print. Here are some key points about the RESTRICT act that have caused concern.
Key Takeaways
- The RESTRICT act covers a vast swathe of technology, allowing the government to evaluate pretty much any software or hardware product. This extends to desktop, mobile, gaming, payment, and web-based applications.
- In its current form, the RESTRICT act could criminalize the use of a VPN to access TikTok. You could, in theory, face prosecution and civil penalties resulting under this legislation.
- Because the language in the bill is so vague, simply interacting with web services or resources from China, Cuba, Iran, Russia, North Korea, or Venezuela could, in theory, be tantamount to breaking the law.
Of course, with the freedom of the internet, we can all read into, understand, and question proposed legislature before it becomes law. As such, many people are questioning the true nature of the RESTRICT Act.
Some are concerned that it could be used for other purposes, including suppressing software at will or handing the government greater powers to invade privacy.
The Effects of a TikTok Ban in America
If TikTok is banned in the U.S., it would mean millions of TikTok users losing access to one of their favorite social media platforms. More than that, the ban could have serious implications for some people who use the app for more than just scrolling during downtime.
Around 150 million Americans currently use TikTok, according to a recent video from the social media app’s CEO, and the company’s news blog. They also suggest that around 5 million businesses are using the application for commercial purposes (though given the subject of this article, take those statistics with a grain of salt).
That said, other sources tend to agree. According to HootSuite, around a quarter of digital marketers see TikTok as an essential means of hitting their target audiences.
Self-employed freelancers also tend to agree — self-published authors, for one, have seen enormous success in using TikTok to reach groups of readers worldwide.
So, while larger corporations can rely on other social media platforms or marketing channels to reach their consumers, smaller businesses may suffer. From an impartial perspective, a TikTok ban could be quite damaging for people running a small outfit or working as a freelancer.
Can You Still Use TikTok in the U.S.?
At present, you can still use TikTok in the U.S. The RESTRICT Act was only introduced to the Senate on March 7, 2023, and it has not yet been passed into law.
Even if the bill is enacted, that doesn’t mean that TikTok will immediately be banned. After all, the government has not explicitly mentioned any link between their concerns over TikTok and this new potential legislature.
If TikTok were banned, the answer becomes more of a gray area. Yes, it would still be possible to use TikTok in America, even if it is banned. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should do so, as we’ll explain more below.
What if I’ve already downloaded TikTok before it’s banned?
If you’ve already downloaded TikTok, a U.S. ban would still affect you. However, it wouldn’t lead to the application being automatically deleted from your devices. There’d be no way for the government to enforce content removal from devices en-masse (thankfully!).
Instead, the application would likely be banned from all of the major app stores, making it impossible to download or update TikTok in the way that you usually would. And if you can’t update your app, you’ll begin to see problems moving forward.
Features may stop working, and you won’t get any of the latest security patches. At this point, using the app could pose additional risk to your security, aside from being illegal in the face of new legislation.
How TikTok’s Privacy Differs from Other Social Media Companies
With the world reacting to TikTok’s dominance of the social media space, what’s the problem with TikTok exactly? Why hasn’t Instagram been banned in the United States or outlawed on government-issued devices? How about Facebook, Snapchat, and other social media applications?
The main issue here stems from the fact that the U.S. government is concerned about TikTok’s potential links to the Chinese government. Tensions between the two nations are currently riding high.
There’s an ongoing dispute over territorial claims in the South China Sea, U.S. concerns over Chinese interests in Hong Kong, and the recent “weather balloon incident” to name but a few.
Meanwhile, the other top social media apps are all different in that they’re owned by American companies. Instagram and Facebook are owned by Meta, while Snap Inc. is the American corporation behind Snapchat.
As a result, they do not share the same privacy and security concerns. American data privacy laws are becoming increasingly stringent, and there’s less risk involved with customer data as a result. Conversely, there have always been questions around TikTok’s privacy and handling of data.
How Has TikTok Responded?
TikTok has been keen to distance itself from any allegations of wrongdoing, as you might expect. For one, they claim to have fired the employees tied to the allegations of spying that we mentioned above. TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, also recently denied that TikTok has any links to the Chinese Communist Party.
Earlier, we linked to a video posted by TikTok on their news page, which was accompanied by a direct response to America’s concerns over the app and data privacy.
In their own words, the team behind TikTok claims that they want to “proactively address US national security concerns.” As such, they claim to have invested $1.5 billion in establishing a TikTok US Data Security Function, including the launch of the U.S. Data Security (USDS) website.
TikTok’s the most popular social media app in the world right now, and according to official statistics, the app’s ad revenue is set to top $18 billion. That’s a lot of reasons to hold onto a region that makes up a vast proportion of TikTok’s user base.
Can I Use a VPN to Access TikTok in the U.S.?
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) changes your IP address, allowing you to pretend that you’re located elsewhere. It’s how countless people around the world unblock streaming platforms, live streams, or other content that’s inaccessible in their own country.
As a result, a VPN could be used to access the app if TikTok is banned in the United States. The same applies for any country or region that bans this or any other application.
However, things are trickier with App Stores, as they require you to have an account, often with a payment method set up that’s local to your country.
What’s more, you have to understand the potential legal implications. Even though a VPN can make you appear as if you’re elsewhere, it doesn’t change the law. Engaging in illegal activity is still illegal, whether you’re connected to a VPN or not. With the RESTRICT act in its current form, you could be liable for prosecution if you try to bypass any TikTok ban imposed in the US.
Final Thoughts
This isn’t the first time that the United States government — or indeed, the POTUS themselves — has declared an intention to ban TikTok. And while many expect the RESTRICT bill to be the first step down that road, it may well be that we don’t see TikTok banned in the U.S.
However, there are genuine tensions and legitimate concerns between the two nations at the moment. While TikTok has sprung to the defensive with their launch of a new website focused on U.S. data security, there are certain points that cause concern – not least the fact that the app’s parent company had active trackers on government-owned sites as recently as last month.
