No more TikTok trends in America?

TikTok, a video platform popular among young people, is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. With more than 100 million users in America, the app is not just fun and games. The U.S. government claims that the Chinese government can access privacy-sensitive data by using the app.

An internal investigation by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has revealed unsolicited access to the privacy data of several American TikTok users. Among them were two American journalists. The employees in question had access, among other things, to IP addresses and user data. As a result, the TikTok employees were fired. However, this does put America on high alert.

Due to these security risks, it has been announced that the app TikTok has been partially blocked on government phones and laptops in several States of America. Congress has already passed a “No TikTok on Government Devices Act” bill stating that as of mid-February, all government-related devices must be uninstalled and downloading the app is illegal. Will TikTok soon be generally banned in America? And will there also be consequences for the Netherlands in the near future?

Questions that are currently unanswered, but in all likelihood will provide more answers in 2023. Given the rise of the wildly popular app, this could cause a change in the social media landscape.