Western powers, including the European Union and United States, have been taking an increasingly tough approach toward TikTok, citing fears user data could be used or abused by Chinese officials. What's your view on this?

Ban it. It's only stupefying people anyway. It's like China's revenge for opium.

TikTok ought to be banned but social media in generally needs to be overhauled. I disagree moderation is the answer though because moderation has been to discriminatory to valid discussion.

Just another example of pathetic anti China propaganda.

McCarthyism 2.0 and as pathetic as the first time round.

Do you really believe the CCP are monitoring your cat videos so they can blackmail you?

If you don't like social media, nobody is forcing you to be on it. But your government denying you the opportunity is Chinese-style censorship.

The West are building the borders for a new Cold War online as well as off it. Expect more inflation, poverty and shortages as a result, as most of the resources will be on the other side of the border this time round.

It's hypocritical how China doesn't allow any of the big western social media but whines when one of theirs is under threat. Ban it.

China continues to ban some of the US's biggest internet services like Facebook, so why the big deal? The US should have never allowed Tiktok and other Chinese platforms in the first place.

Anyway, the recent bans in the West are very weak anyway, mainly about running the service on government devices.

I think TikTok is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to apps that pose security threats, it just so happens that the said app is run by China, and there are more China-based apps that could be looked into such as Alipay and WeChat that were used to designate people in the country during the height of the pandemic. The keyword here is surveillance. I barely use TikTok but friends that do say their attention span has shortened and it made them dumber since most content are the equivalent of junk food. If we're talking about Western-based apps, there's a lot of them that pose privacy risks and there's too many to elaborate on.

"Western powers" know exactly how useful FB/Intsa's data has been to their own security services, so don't like to see their own tools used against them.

"Western powers, including the European Union and United States, have been taking an increasingly tough approach toward TikTok, citing fears user data could be used or abused by Chinese officials. What's your view on this?"

This is a simple question with another simple question as an answer: Are American Corporations trustworthy? That is, who in the short term is most likely to collect, abuse, sell, lose, or have stolen from them your 'data', China or Corporate? And only a narcissist could think that China might be interested in them personally. Counting on the collective American memory is never a good bet but, maybe, one might remember Huawei and their advanced 5G system that The West was desperately trying to catch up to and the pernicious campaign to kill a more successful competitor that was waged upon U.S. vassals to not adopt the Huawei system and wait for the U.S. to catch up and that campaign was no doubt financed under the desk in Congress by Big Comm. That TikTok is displacing proven poisons like Facebook and other now cliched western media is almost without a doubt the ONLY 'threat to national security' that TikTok presents.

The most important rule is that, when the U.S. Government criticizes an offshore interest, it's best to look behind the condemnation for who stands to benefit from it and it will be Corporate every time, certainly not us.

Ban it. It's only stupefying people anyway. It's like China's revenge for opium.

It's hypocritical how China doesn't allow any of the big western social media but whines when one of theirs is under threat. Ban it.

Excellent post Moonraker!

Agree 100%!

Ban TikTok

Neither Trump nor Biden has shown any proof that the User data which is based not in China but in their countries is a security concern.

Courts in USA denied the notions as no Secuity concerns were presented by the Trump regime. Same will happen with Biden.

It's the usual anti-China rhetoric as the western countries cannot compete with Chinese apps. Same was true with the Chinese smartphone Huawei. Great phone but competition to iPhone. USA destroyed it.

I do not use TikTok, Facebook nor Twitter but those who do should not be denied them.

Don’t overdo on this topic. Yes, it really has to be banned or strictly monitored, but on the other side, the ones who currently use it are not the brightest lamps on the ceiling, so China can use their data, but of no use at all. The ban should be of course implemented without leaks when there’s a chance of any link or access to important companies, military locations or government and administration offices.

@Xavier If the USA destroyed Huawei because it was competition, why didn't they destroy Samsung? The answer is because it's not a security risk like Huawei.)

The reason why Samsung did not get destroyed is South Korea is a USA ally and has also USA troops stationed there for any acts from N Korea and China.

If USA tried destroyed South Korean products, South Korea would first kick out the USA troops and USA/Japan/South Korea alliance would be destroyed. Other things would follow.

China is not a USA ally but a huge and bigger competitor and USA is jealous of it.

USA is a country of sanctions and wars.

When American social media can’t operate in China n Chinese everything is sold n working in American the balance is really off a complete banning of everything chinese would knock some sense to China bt America is too weak woke or stuffed with chinese money to make a strong move

TikTok is like a vacuum cleaner sucking up the advertising revenue of InstaGram, Twitter, YouTube, all bastions of privacy.

Who benefits from banning TikTok?

bjornson

And only a narcissist could think that China might be interested in them personally. 

It's not personal. The main issue is that millions and millions of government devices in Western countries are installed with the app. This is absolutely ridiculous.

TikTok is destroying the minds of millions of people…; it causes depression, jealousy, aggressiveness, laziness and stupidity…; I’m more worried about that.

*TikTok is destroying the minds of millions of people…; it causes depression, jealousy, aggressiveness, laziness and stupidity…; I’m more worried about that.*

Social media addiction is destroying the minds of millions of people…; it causes depression, jealousy, aggressiveness, laziness and stupidity…; I’m more worried about that. TikTok is just a part of the problem.

Yep

Ban it!

It's amazing how easily people are sold to this nonsense. I would try and improve my product and compete to gain more users like YouTube has done with the same short Tik Tok like clips instead of crying to your government to eliminate your competitor. If the restaurant in town has better food and more patrons, improve your dishes and dining experience instead of cooking up rumors that "cockroaches are everywhere in the kitchen" of your popular competitor. That's what this is.

When Chinese banks made capital available to build ports in Sri Lanka, the West cried "debt traps" and casted China as a conniving creditor. When they took a closer look, China's portion was only 13.65% of the total. It’s empty rhetoric that these anti-China tools use. Applying the same today, UBS is putting CSB in a debt trap.

Sri Lanka Debt Trap - failed

Uighur Genocide - failed

Tibet - failed

Hong Kong - failed

Taiwan - failed

Huawei - failed

China Collapse - failed

Semi-Conductors - failed

Spy Balloon - failed

TikTok is a bomb ticking it is nothing but a mole app for chinese spies to see everything you are doing they want world dominance and they think people are really stupid!

"TikTok is a bomb ticking it is nothing but a mole app for chinese spies to see everything you are doing they want world dominance and they think people are really stupid!"

Case in point...