There is quite a bit going on about TikTok. The Chinese social medium is under fire not only in our country, but also in the United States. The country is even currently discussing a blockade.
TikTok is the social medium of the moment. The platform manages to attract especially many young people. Facebook and Google are watching it blearily. They are doing everything they can to copy functions of the service and are coming up with features such as reels and shorts. They may soon have to do a lot less.
A TikTok ban in the United States?
There is in fact talk in the United States of a ban on TikTok. This has everything to do with privacy, a discussion surrounding the medium that also plays out in the Netherlands. Here people are afraid that the Chinese government has access to the viewing behavior of Dutch people. Something the Chinese authorities could use to blackmail people with.
There are also serious concerns in the United States. TikTok is now banned on devices owned by government officials, preventing them from using it. Members who already have the app on their phones must now delete it. The U.S. fears that China is spying on them through the app.
Back in 2020, then-President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok in the United States. That ban ultimately did not materialize. Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) already advised Apple and Google to remove the app from the App Store and Google Play. It called the app an “advanced surveillance tool.
Fear
As in the Netherlands, a number of Chinese employees of parent company ByteDance can access users’ data in the United States. According to ByteDance, however, they are “subject to a set of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols” (good Scrabble words).
The great fear of both the Netherlands and the United States is that Chinese authorities could gain access to users’ data. Because Chinese employees have been able to do this for a month, it is only a small step up to the Chinese government, according to experts.
Will there be a ban on TikTok in the Netherlands?
So ByteDance says it is committed to making changes that fully protect user data and U.S. national security interests. To do this, it is working with U.S.-based Oracle. Accordingly, users’ data must be on U.S. servers.
Whether the ban will actually come about in the United States remains to be seen. In the Netherlands, however, this is not yet the case. Our country is waiting for investigation results from the regulator in Ireland. The latter is investigating TikTok on behalf of the European Union.
