The short-time video application TikTok is one of the most popular online platforms in the world today and the app has a very large number of users in the United States. The majority of the users of the app include teenagers and the app had been a news of discussion for quite some time.
The application was banned in many countries like India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, pointing out reasons like the presence of inappropriate content and for being a threat to national security. As opposed to this, the app is widely popular among the young generation in the United States.
The application has also faced much criticism in the United States. Some of the states in the U.S. have taken steps in banning the app earlier.
Now, as per the available reports, the United States House of Representatives has passed legislation that will ensure the ban of applications from government-owned devices.
TikTok is a product of its parent company Bytedance. The company is highly criticized in the United States due to its close association with China.
It is very evident that China has a huge influence on the company ByteDance and it is one of the major reasons why the app is not seen as friendly by most US states and that they have already taken steps in banning the app.
Nebraska was one of the first states to ban TikTok on government-issued devices back in 2020. Following the ban states like Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, Oklahoma, Dakota, Texas, Utah, and so on have followed the ban on TikTok on state government devices.
Being the product of ByteDance, which is a Chinese company, the United States government is very skeptical about the information gathered by the application.
As the app requires different permission like location, it will be very easy for the company to have access to such sensitive information of many United States citizens.
The app also can be used to study the preferences and nature of the people in America, which is such sensitive information if it falls into the hands of an enemy country.
One such event took place earlier this month.
According to the reports available, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok conducted an internal investigation and it was found that their staff has used the information available through TikTok to gather data about journalists who work for agencies like BuzzFeed, Financial Times, and also Forbes.
The employees made use of the IP address of the journalist and tracked the movements of the journalist in an attempt to find the source of their coverage.
ByteDance claimed that they have fired four of their employees who were associated with the scam and reassured that the data about US usage are not set in China.
The company ByteDance has replied to the arguments and stated that the company had no ties with the Chinese government and also that they were much more focused on their offices in Los Angeles, Singapore, and also in Washington D.C to make it clear that the company’s operations are mainly focused outside China.
The reply provided by the company was not completely accepted by the US government and an investigation was carried out by the government about the issue while Donald Trump was the president.
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The movement against banning the short-video app gained popularity when Donald Trump served as the president of the United States.
Trump reportedly signed an official order to ban the app in the country. But the order was tacked on by the federal judges who issued an injunction against the orders stating that the order was based on weak legal claims.
He tried to ban the app from Apple Store and from Google PlayStore unless the company was sold to an American company but that did not happen. The issue remained unsolved when Trump left his position at the White House.
According to the latest information available, the bill that will ensure the ban of TikTok-owned apps was passed by the Senate earlier this month. It is expected to be signed by President Joe Biden to make it into a law that all states will have to abide by.
The ban is already instituted by the departments that have a major role in the security of the country like Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and also the State Department. Not only that but it is also calculated that around 13 states in the country have banned the app as of December 13.
TikTok rose to its present popularity in the last few years and the app is one of the most popular ones in the country today.
It is calculated that the United States has a sound 90 million users of TikTok and the major users of the app are teenagers.
Banning the app permanently from the nation is speculated to have a huge effect on its young users.
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