Could TikTok be banned in the UK? How US decision will impact us
With 170 million American users, a TikTok ban across the UK could have a big impact.
On Wednesday, the US moved a step closer to banning the world’s most-downloaded app following a vote in the House of Representatives.
Here’s what we know about the US ban – and whether a similar move could happen in the UK.
Has TikTok been banned in the US?
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that means that TikTok could be banned in the US if its Chinese owner ByteDance doesn’t sell it.
325 Congress members voted in favour of the bill, with only 65 opposing it.
But the bill isn’t in force yet – it still has to pass through the Senate before it becomes law.
If it does pass through the Senate, ByteDance will have 165 days to divest from TikTok, which means that it would have to sell the platform to someone else.
What is ByteDance?
ByteDance is a Chinese company based in Beijing.
It was founded in 2012 when a software engineer named Zhang Yiming and his friend Liang Rubo created a real estate search engine.
They then began developing other apps, including Douyin, a content-sharing app that they released in China in 2016.
Douyin became so popular that ByteDance wanted to expand, so they launched an international version, TikTok, in 2018.
According to one estimate, the company is worth more than $200 billion.
‘TikTok could live on and people could do whatever they want on it provided there is that separation,’ said Representative Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the House select China committee.
Gallagher called ByteDance a ‘tumour’ and said that the bill was effectively a ‘surgery’ designed to remove it.
However, selling TikTok could be tricky.
ByteDance would have to find a buyer prepared to spend billions on the platform. They said that they don’t know if they would be able to secure a deal within the bill’s 165-day deadline.
What’s more, China would also have to approve the sale – which is not guaranteed.
If the bill passes and ByteDance does not sell TikTok, the app will be removed from app stores like the Apple App Store and Google Play.
That means new users would not be able to download it.
However, it would be difficult to enforce a complete ban.
People who already have TikTok installed on their phone may still be able to access the app.
Users could also get access to TikTok by using a virtual private network, also known as a VPN, to change the location of their phone to a country where the app isn’t banned.
President Joe Biden said he was in favour of the ban, even though he joined the platform last month.
‘If they pass it, I’ll sign it,’ he said.
TikTok said that a ban would ‘strip 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression.’
‘This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States,’ the company said after the committee vote.
Why does the US government want to ban TikTok?
Some US politicians are worried about the links between TikTok and the Chinese government.
That’s because they believe that ByteDance could share sensitive data about TikTok users with China’s ruling Communist Party.
‘This is a critical national security issue,’ Republican Steve Scalise said on X.
White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said it was a question of control over data.
‘Do we want the data from TikTok – children’s data, adults’ data – to be going, to be staying here in America or going to China?’ he said.
There are also concerns about censorship on the platform, with some politicians claiming that the platform censors content that criticises the Chinese government.
However, it may not be a popular move. Many American TikTok users took to the app to complain about the bill.
TikTok said that it does not and will not share US user data with the Chinese government.
They added that US user data is stored in Singapore and the US, not China.
When TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew was asked if a Chinese official was on the ByteDance board, he said ‘I believe so.’
The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the proposed ban an ‘act of bullying’.
Is there a way to stop the TikTok ban?
Even if the bill passes through the Senate, it could still face legal challenges.
That’s because some people argue that a ban would go against the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees citizens the right to free speech.
In 2023, the state of Montana tried to ban the app, but a federal judge blocked the law because he said that it violated the First Amendment.
The same legal challenge could be applied if a nationwide ban comes into force.
Is TikTok already banned anywhere in the US?
As well as Montana’s attempt to ban TikTok last year, there have been several other efforts to limit the app in the country.
Donald Trump threatened to ban the platform in 2020 when he issued an executive order.
Today, however, he opposes the ban.
The app is already banned on government-issued phones in the US, and at least 50 universities in the US have banned it from on-campus wifi and university-owned computers.
Could it get banned in the UK?
The app is banned from government devices in the UK because of cybersecurity concerns.
However Oliver Downden said that the ban only applied to work devices, not personal phones or computers used by government employees.
While a US ban could pave the way for other countries to follow suit, there are no current signs that the UK will ban TikTok.
Is TikTok banned anywhere in the world?
India banned TikTok along with 58 other Chinese-created apps in 2020 following escalating tensions between the two countries.
The Indian government said that it wanted to ‘protect the data and privacy’ of its citizens.
The app is also banned in Senegal, Somalia, Nepal and Kyrgyzstan.
In Russia, TikTok is still available but users can’t upload new videos.
There is a separate version of the app in China, called Douyin.
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