Why is TikTok getting banned around the world?

It's one of the biggest apps in the world that is using TikTok, a security risk. Hi Bestie, I hope you have the most wonderful day. This is an issue of our times. Sophie, get off it, stop it. TikTok is owned by the Chinese tech company Bite Dance, some fear that the app can harvest your data and potentially hand it to the Chinese government. For people with sensitive information on their phones, for example government workers, it could mean a potentially major security risk. We'll look back at this time and say wow, that was a really naive time where people just let their data go all over the place.

So at a time when tensions between China and the West is high, some governments are cracking down and banning workers from having the app on their work phones. The US, as the world's top country, is so afraid of a user-friendly app that is used by young people. It's too unconfident. Government workers in more than half of the US states, Canada and the European Commission are all banned from having TikTok on their work devices. The measures went in line with our strict internal cybersecurity policies. The US House Foreign Affairs Committee even voted to give President Biden the power to ban the app altogether. It's something his predecessor Donald Trump attempted to do in 2020.

I set a date of around September 15th at which point it's going to be out of business in the United States. TikTok was also completely banned in India in 2020 along with a host of other Chinese-owned apps. The UK has not put in place these type of restrictions yet, but some MPs are worried about TikTok. It always blows my mind when I look at the number of people who use TikTok. I mean, I'm one of them, right? You know, you use these sort of videos. Are we being a bit. Sophie, get off it! Stop it! Our data is a key vulnerability and China is building a tech-to-talitarian state on the back of our data, so we have to get far more serious about protecting ourselves.

TikTok denies it could be a security risk at all. After the EU Commission's ban, the app's Brussels-based public policy official Caroline Greer tweeted that the suspension is misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions. But it seems bands like this aren't having much of an impact on people who use the app. I used to be very concerned about my data, but being on social media, I think there's a lot of companies that take advantage of data and selling it, and so TikTok, in my mind, is just another company doing that. In the US, the number of people who use the app is 125 million, while in the US, it's used by two-thirds of all teenagers. China has, unsurprisingly, hit back at the bands. We strongly oppose the US's national security concept of using national power.

All this is playing out at the exact time that tensions between China and the West, particularly America, are at their lowest ebb in decades. Trade, computer chips that allegedly steal tech data, Taiwan, and the suspected Chinese spy balloons shot down over the US earlier this year, have all strained their relations. This TikTok controversy is all part of that picture, and with the app's CEO set to appear before a US government committee at the end of March, it's set to roll on for some time.

SKY NEWS, SKY, CHINA, US, AMERICA, EU, EUROPEAN COMMISSION, TIKTOK, TT, SOCIAL MEDIA, BYTE DANCE, BEIJING, TECHNOLOGY, SECURITY, SPYWARE, DATA, PERSONAL DATA, DONALD TRUMP, JOE BIDEN, USA