The US Debate Over TikTok: Is It Really a Security Concern?
The US House of Representatives has approved a bill that could potentially lead to the removal of TikTok from the country. Now, the decision will be analyzed by the Senate before reaching President Joe Biden’s desk.
For a while now, US officials have been closely examining TikTok, particularly focusing on its algorithm, impact on young users, and alleged ties of its owner, ByteDance, to the Chinese government. Many US politicians are worried that Chinese authorities might be gathering information from American citizens through this popular social network.
ByteDance has tried to address these concerns by stating that US citizens’ data is stored on servers within the country. However, this hasn’t been enough to reassure politicians, who have now approved the bill. If signed into law, ByteDance will have about 5 months to sell its US operations and leave the country.
