TikTok faces ban in US by Sunday after Supreme Court rejects appeal

Joe Tidy
Cyber correspondent

Since President Trump started raising concerns about TikTok in 2019, fear has rippled around the world about the fast growing and hugely popular app.

It’s been banned on devices of government employees, civil servants or military personnel in many countries including the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Taiwan.

The Czech cyber security watchdog even went as far as to warn members of the public against using TikTok.

There have been other public sector decisions too like when Denmark’s public broadcaster banned employees from having TikTok on work phones. The BBC also put out a similar warning to staff but it was never enforced.

Other countries have banned it based on morality or child protection reasons like India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

These bans are unlikely to be affected as they are political and cultural decisions.

But the US Supreme Court ruling further underlines the security concerns about the app and could see other countries ramp up restrictions.

Or – what seems more likely – is that incoming President Trump will save TikTok and those same security fears may fizzle away elsewhere too. Much is at stake with a swipe of Trump’s pen.