The TikTok Ban Saga and the Future of this Billion-User Platform

TikTok has achieved an incredible global reach in only a few short years. In 2016, the parent company, ByteDance, created Douyin and launched it in China. A similar app—Musical.ly—quickly became popular with a mostly younger demographic in Western markets in 2014. By 2018, ByteDance had acquired Musical.ly and launched the TikTok brand seen everywhere today.

Well—not everywhere. Recently, there has been a spate of bans amid growing worries about the sheer amount of data TikTok gathers and what ByteDance is doing with it. Several countries have banned the app completely, while others have imposed bans on downloading or using the app on government devices.

Let’s take a closer look at where TikTok is already banned and what bans may be in the works for the near future.

In 2020, despite overwhelming popularity and astronomical growth, India banned TikTok. After a border clash with China turned deadly, India banned TikTok and nearly 60 other Chinese apps. In the ensuing months, the Indian government banned another 200 Chinese apps, citing geopolitical concerns. India is home to over 1.4 billion people in 2023. At the time of the 2020 ban, it’s believed that there were over 150 million active Indian TikTok users.

More recently, Vietnam issued an ultimatum in April of 2023 to ByteDance over some of TikTok’s content. Le Quang Tu Do of Vietnam’s Information Ministry announced a probe into “toxic” and “superstitious” content on the app. He noted that simply removing the app would not be enough, and government agencies are looking into additional, unspecified measures. Vietnam’s government has stated that there are over 50 million TikTok users in Vietnam over the age of 18 at this time.

Despite no clear evidence that TikTok user data is making its way into the hands of the Chinese government, partial and total bans of the app are gaining popularity with US politicians on both sides of the aisle. The US currently has over 113 million active TikTok users, more than any other single country.

The US has had concerns over TikTok’s reach and cybersecurity questions for years. In 2020, President Trump attempted to enact a ban, but it failed. In March of 2023, US government employees were warned that they would need to delete TikTok from all government devices within 30 days. Some lawmakers have been strident in their calls for a total ban. And recently, the state of Montana enacted targeted legislation that would fine app marketplaces that offer the app beginning in 2024. Several groups have already launched lawsuits in opposition to the ban.

Montana is the first U.S. state to enact a statewide ban on TikTok, although legal challenges may delay or derail the ban before it is due to take effect in January of 2024. The governor of Florida recently signed a bill prohibiting the use of K-12 public school WiFi to access TikTok, even from a personal device.

But it’s unlikely that a total ban in the U.S. market would go smoothly. TikTok has provided many businesses and influencers unprecedented opportunities to reach much larger audiences. Julius Tirrá, CEO of Celebian, a growth platform that allows purchase of followers on Tik Tok, noted that recent TikTok statistics compiled by Celebian highlight just how much potential reach there is.

According to Tirrá, “TikTok has the highest reach among Gen Z users, with 25% of female users aged 18-24 and 17.9% of male users being reached by the platform. And TikTok ads are now reaching up to 50.3% of US adults.” Celebian projects that TikTok will achieve more than 2.3 billion users by the end of 2023. And with consistently high levels of user engagement, more and more companies will establish a presence on the platform.

While the U.S. has wrestled with how and whether to ban TikTok, other countries have joined India in taking some action. Taiwan has banned TikTok on government devices along with other Chinese-made software, citing national security warnings from the US.

The United Kingdom, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Canada, and Belgium have all banned TikTok on government devices because of cybersecurity concerns. Belgium issued a temporary, six-month ban in March of 2023.

France also banned TikTok and Twitter from government devices in March of 2023 over data protection concerns. However, officials can request special permission to use TikTok and other recently banned ‘recreational’ apps.

In April of 2023, Australia chose to ban TikTok on devices owned by the federal government due to cybersecurity worries. China is Australia’s largest trading partner, and the move raised tensions between the two countries.

The European Union has also banned TikTok on devices used by staff and issued a warning that staff should also delete the app from their personal devices.

Pakistan has temporarily banned TikTok several times in the last couple of years based on concerns about the immorality of some content. The Taliban in Afghanistan banned TikTok in 2022, citing the need to protect its young people from misleading and immoral content.

Is TikTok Passing Data to China?
In March of 2023, TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress and answered questions about cybersecurity and spying concerns. Despite TikTok’s heavy investment into Project Texas, lawmakers continued to worry that the Chinese government has had ongoing access to user data. Project Texas is a multi-year endeavor to wall off much of that U.S. user data, but many still question how secure that data will really be. However, there have not been any clear indications so far that TikTok has explicitly transferred US user data to the Chinese government.

The Future Trends for TikTok
It’s not clear yet what effect recent bans will have on TikTok’s global growth. In spite of these bans, experts project the app’s user base will continue to grow. And many of the bans are likely to be ineffective at best.

TikTok continues to be a powerful way to quickly reach a large and highly engaged audience. Both small and large businesses are tapping into the algorithms to achieve brand awareness and reach using growth platforms like Celebian that just isn’t possible with other social media apps. TikTok is rapidly approaching well over two billion active users. Will that be too big to fail? Only time will tell.