US Ban TikTok in Government-issued Phones

Apps that are based on foreign ownership of a company will cause US businesses to suffer in the long term.
Gillian Diebold, Center for Data Innovation

“Blanket bans against apps based on foreign ownership will only hurt US business in the long-term because countries could seek out to block US online service over similar national security concerns,” stated Gillian Diebold, an analyst at the Center for Data Innovation.

Diebold, like other privacy advocates, stated that policymakers should seek more promising solutions to address the underlying risk.

Diebold stated that, “For example to address data concerns,” lawmakers should prioritize passing federal privacy legislation to protect consumer information. This would require companies to disclose with whom they share data and hold them responsible for their statements.

Is the US going to ban TikTok?

There have been many attempts to ban TikTok’s operation in the US. Rubio’s bill would, for example, block all commercial operations of TikTok in the US.

However, the viability and effectiveness of such bans are still to be proven. Trump’s earlier attempt to ban TikTok users from downloading it was stopped by a court due to free speech concerns. Kurt Opsahl (general counsel for EFF) stated that a total ban would be a violation of free speech. While Rubio’s bill to ban TikTok and similar laws to do the same purport to “protect America against China’s authoritarian government”, the bills and other proposed laws to ban TikTok actually follow “one of many hallmarks of the Chinese internet strategies”.

Opsahl stated that while a government has the right to establish rules and restrictions for use of its official devices, banning TikTok’s public use is a different matter.

He said that TikTok’s security and privacy, as well as its relationship to the Chinese government, are indeed worrying. However, a total ban isn’t the solution. A total ban does not restrict the privacy and security concerns of TikTok, but instead, it censors the speech of millions upon millions of Americans.

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