Return to Uzone News Portal
Uzone.id — TikTok has become the center of global controversy, from being a trendsetter, Gen Z’s favorite child, even as a threat. Yup, TikTok is a threat to giant social media like Instagram and YouTube.
During TikTok’s golden age, this ByteDance-owned app also caught the government’s attention—sadly, not in a good way. Many countries are concerned and question the app’s safety.
More than 10 countries around the world have applied rules to ban TikTok. From India to the recent one—the USA—the main reason is data privacy. Since the beginning, TikTok has always been doubted about its users’ privacy.
While users enjoy dance challenges and trending videos, TikTok collects a lot of information from them, such as their location, the videos they watch and engage with, how long they spend on the app, biometric identifiers such as faceprints and voiceprints, images and videos on the user’s clipboard, IP address, and more.
Governments are also concerned because TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. They’re worried that user data could be shared with the Chinese government for personal purposes.
Though TikTok denies this claim, skepticism remains, and it is even getting broader. In 2022, the FBI labeled TikTok a national security concern.
India: The first country to take the big step
India was the first country to ban TikTok, taking action in June 2020. It’s not about TikTok, but more than that because India banned more than 58 other Chinese apps due to national security concerns following geopolitical tensions with China.
This move is like a hard slap in the face. India is a huge market for TikTok, with over 200 million users. This ban not only impacted ByteDance financially but also marked the beginning of TikTok’s nightmare. India succeeded in influencing other countries to reevaluate TikTok’s presence.
Following India, TikTok has been banned in Pakistan at least four times since October 2020, citing concerns that the app promotes immoral content. Other countries, like Taiwan, Denmark, Australia, and Norway, banned TikTok from all government devices, but the app remains available to the general public.
The United States took the same action
TikTok’s future has been scrutinized in the United States for years. In 2020, former President Trump attempted to ban the app unless ByteDance sold its U.S. operations. While that effort stalled, the concerns haven’t gone away.
In 2023, Montana became the first U.S. state to ban TikTok entirely. Governor Greg Gianforte justified the ban by citing the need to protect users’ private data. TikTok has since challenged the ban in court, arguing it violates constitutional rights. Despite these efforts, doubts persist.
In 2022, a report was that ByteDance employees accessed the private data of American journalists. ByteDance didn’t deny that accusation and said that some employees improperly accessed TikTok user data of two journalists.
Reuters reported that ByteDance employees accessed the data as part of an unsuccessful effort to investigate leaks of company information earlier this year. They aimed to identify potential connections between these two journalists, a former BuzzFeed reporter and a Financial Times reporter, and company employees.
Because of this incident, in 2023, TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, faced intense questioning in Congress as lawmakers demanded greater transparency.
In 2024, the possibility of banning TikTok is increasing as President Joe Biden passed legislation that would ban the distribution of the app in the U.S. if its parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t sell it before Jan. 19, 2025.
ByteDance and TikTok didn’t stay still. They reported having a conversation with the new President of the USA, Donald Trump, to stop the legislation.
With over 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok remains a global phenomenon. However, its long-term success depends on convincingly addressing privacy and security concerns.
Due to data privacy and national security fears, TikTok’s future hangs in the balance. While the app denies sharing user data with foreign governments, some countries remain unconvinced. As the debate continues, users may want to stay informed and cautious about the information they share on the platform.
