On December 13, 2022, legislation banning the use of TikTok in the U.S. was officially introduced in the Senate. This move comes after a number of states began reviewing the usage of TikTok on state-controlled devices due to security concerns.
Concerns have been raised in the last year surrounding TikTok’s user data privacy regulations, including by FBI leadership. National security reviews have been taking place in response to these concerns.
U.S. policymakers point to potentially compromising information that includes facial and biometric data, location data of U.S. users, and keystroke data that potentially could be used to access financial accounts of U.S. citizens. States that have banned or have begun the process to ban TikTok on state-controlled devices include Alabama, Utah, Nebraska, South Dakota, South Carolina, Maryland, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
A member of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) called on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores in June 2022.
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