There are over 100 million Americans who use TikTok regularly, making it a strong social media presence in the country. But since the launch of the popular social media App, the United States government has been quite skeptical about the App and its privacy and safety measures causing them to increasingly investigate TikTok every year since it launched in the US.
- In 2019, the US government opened a close CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) investigation into Tiktok.
- In 2020, CFIUS ordered byte-dance (owners of Tiktok) to divest Tiktok and destroy data outside the US.
- In 2021, Oracle and Walmart won the bid for TikTok’s US data storage.
- In 2022, a rigorous Tiktok review of data storage was conducted by the Biden administration, in which Tiktok insisted that all US user data be stored with Oracle.
The owners of TikTok have come out several times to say that the App is safe, but those statements have not yet put the US government at ease, and with that effect, the US House of Representatives has passed a law banning TikTok from all government-issued phones.
This move is a security policy signal to help mitigate the breach of government information by unwanted users. It is important to know that whatever the federal government decides, to state is most likely to follow, as 19 states have also implemented a similar ban on the App.
There are a lot of risks if the App is allowed, and some of them involve US user data being manipulated in some shape or form by those in the communist party of China, breaching user privacy and using it. Another risk is when the algorithm and backbone of the social media giant becomes manipulated and used for political purposes to influence or infiltrate US government policy or for other harmful purposes.
Why the security of users’ data is still not guaranteed in the eyes of the US government because Musically was a US-based company that was acquired by TikTok during its launch, and during that takeover, the company assets and user data were not investigated by CFUIS. The US government is not going to trust the App and its intentions 100%.
At the rate at which the App is being screened in the US, there is a very high probability that it might be banned throughout the US in the not-so-distant future. What is your take on that?
Is it a precaution worth taking, or is TikTok safe?
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Photo by Franck
