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Could TikTok be banned in the UK? What US bill means and where else the app is blocked
Elon Musk reportedly engaged in talks to buy TikTok from China
TIKTOK could be banned in the US if its Chinese parent company refuses to sell.
Fears over the platform posing a national security threat have fuelled rumours of its potential prohibition — here's everything we know.
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In 2023, concerns over the social media app escalated among governments in the US, Canada, the European Union (EU), and the UK over its pervasive data collection and ties to China.
On March 13, 2024, the US House of Representatives passed a bill demanding the app be sold by owner ByteDance in six months.
The bill was extended on April 24, 2024, when President Joe Biden signed the National Security Act 2024 into law.
This new legislation extended the original deadline to nine months, giving ByteDance until January 19, 2025, to divest TikTok or face a US ban.
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World's richest man Elon Musk was reported to be involved in talks to buy TikTok from China in January 2025.
However, TikTok has dismissed the claim as "pure fiction".
A TikTok spokesperson said: "We can't be expected to comment on pure fiction."
The app has amassed more than 1.8billion users worldwide since it launched nearly eight years ago.
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TikTok has called cascading government concerns "misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions" and has always refuted claims that it has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Could TikTok be banned in the UK?
There are concerns over security and data privacy at the Chinese-owned app.
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While TikTok is not banned for the average user in the UK, it was announced in 2023 that the app would be banned on government staff phones.
Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hinted at mirroring countrywide bans, saying the UK would "look at what our allies are doing".
In March 2024, Mr Sunak’s spokesman said the app remained a “personal choice” for Brits but security boffins would “keep all these issues under review”.
TikTokers sign up for a considerable amount of data collection when they create an account on the platform, such as:
- The device and operating system you're using
- How long you watch a post for
- What categories you like
- Where you're located
- The keystroke rhythms you have when you type
In 2021, Ireland's data protection watchdog launched an investigation into “transfers by TikTok of personal data to China and TikTok’s compliance with the GDPR’s requirements for transfers of personal data to third countries”.
However, , according to former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Is TikTok banned in the US?
TikTok is not banned in the US, as of January 15, 2025.
However, TikTok is gearing up to totally shut down the app to Americans on January 19, 2025, as the federal ban approaches.
The US also blocked all federal employees from having TikTok on government-issued phones in 2023.
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Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that parent company ByteDance could share TikTok user data with China’s authoritarian government.
If ByteDance does not sell the company within the six month period set by Biden, the app will be banned for all 150million US users.
Where else is TikTok blocked or restricted?
Alongside the US, the UK, EU, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Taiwan have banned people working for government agencies from having TikTok on staff devices.
In 2020, India banned the platform and dozens of other Chinese apps after warning that user data was being mined and profiled “by elements hostile to national security and defence of India”.
India made the ban permanent in January 2021.
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Authorities in Pakistan have imposed at least four temporary bans on the platform since October 2020, citing concerns that it promotes immoral content.
However, the country has rowed back on its decision each time.
Indonesia temporarily banned the app in 2018 for similar reasons, but lifted the ban a week later after the app agreed to censor certain content.
Afghanistan's Taliban banned TikTok in 2022 on the grounds of protecting youths from "being misled".
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In August 2023, Somalia said the country was planning on restricting access to TikTok, alongside Telegram and online gambling site 1XBet.
Nepal announced a ban on TikTok late in 2023.
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