Tik'd off? App faces uncertain future as ban calls grow

The Chinese spy balloon that hovered over the US earlier this year did not just damage relations between Beijing and Washington, it also cast a shadow over the future of TikTok.

- Dan Milmo and Johana Bhuiyan

Last week, a US congressional committee backed legislation that would give the US president the power to ban the Chinese-owned social video app. The Republican chair of the committee, Michael McCaul, said the incident had reinforced fears of Chinese state surveillance, describing TikTok as a “spy balloon in your phone”.

It came after Canada announced it would join the US in barring TikTok from government mobile devices. The EU’s executive arm and the European parliament have also banned the app from staff phones.

TikTok faces the threat of these narrow bans escalating. Banning the app entirely would leave a big gap in the social media consumption of the US alone, where TikTok has more than 100 million users. Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, was ambivalent. “This may be the first step, this may be the only step we need to take,” he said.