Tiktok Ban Fallout: Will UK And Other US Allies Also Ban The Social Media Platform?

(MENAFN- Live Mint) US's ban on TikTok is expected to spread to its allied countries and beyond in case the upcoming Donald trump administration decides to keep the social media platform offline, reported the news portal BBC, citing analysts.

The analysts said it's“just matter of time” before it happens, as per the news report.

Currently, the social media application has been switched offline in America after the US lawmakers deemed it a national security risk due to the parent company, ByteDance's Chinese government ties. The company denied the lawmaker's claims of being involved with the Chinese government.

Donald Trump indicated that he opposes the ban and will find a way to reverse it, as per multiple media reports.

Experts think that if the ban goes ahead, similar to the earlier Chinese and Russian tech companies, the TikTok ban might spread to the rest of the world.

“There are big parallels between TikTok and what happened with China's Huawei and Russia's Kaspersky that indicates it's just a matter of time until a creeping ban takes affect,” Emily Taylor, Editor of the Cyber Policy Journal, told the news portal.

Earlier, under the same Donald Trump administration, Kaspersky's flagship antivirus software was banned from civil and military computer usage after accusations that the Russian government using it for hacking incidents emerged in 2017; the allegations were never proven, as per the report.

The UK and other allies immediately followed suit, imposing restrictions, warnings or bans. The company argued that the US government made its decision based on a“geopolitical climate and theoretical concerns” rather than independently verifying the incident and involvement.

The same incident also happened with Chinese telecom giant Huawei over accusations of the company and other Chinese tech firms' involvement and relations with the Chinese government.

The company argued that the 5G kit should not be used to build telecoms in case it could be used to spy on or degrade communications.

“The UK and others spoke about independently coming to their own conclusions over security but the US was unrelenting in its lobbying behind closed doors. They warned about the national security risks which were never backed up by evidence,” said a former insider, cited in the news report.

In case of a ban, the US Alliance usually starts with countries like the US, UK, Canada , Australia and New Zealand or the English-speaking democracies under the Five Eyes Alliance, as per the report.

So far all members have banned TikTok from government devices and some of them have issued public notices about it. Canada has ordered an end to TikTok's operation in the country.

This ban's effect has already spread on government employees, civil servants or military personnel in Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, The Netherlands, Norway and Taiwan.

“What we don't yet know is whether TikTok will be the exception as Trump has said he is opposed to the ban so will he order allies to replicate a ban? We don't yet know,” said Ciaran Martin National Cyber Security Centre Head, cited the news portal.

According to the official spokes person, so far there are“no plans” to ban TikTok from UK, reported the news portal.

“We engage with all major social media companies to understand their plans for ensuring the security of UK data and to ensure they meet the high data protection and cyber security standards we expect,” they said, as per the news report.

TikTok's presence in other countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and India is already banned, and even in China, it has a sister app Douyin.

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