India set an “extremely necessary precedent” by banning TikTok two and a half years ago, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr mentioned as he projected an identical destiny for the Chinese language big ByteDance app within the U.S.
Carr warned that TikTok “operates as a classy surveillance device” and instructed the Indian every day Financial Instances that banning the social app is a “pure subsequent step in our efforts to safe communication community.”
The senior Republican on the Federal Communications Fee mentioned he’s frightened that China may use delicate and private knowledge gleaned from TikTok for “blackmail, espionage, international affect campaigns and surveillance.”
“We have to observe India’s lead extra broadly to weed out different nefarious apps as properly,” he mentioned.
Carr’s remarks additional illustrate a rising push amongst U.S. states and lawmakers which can be more and more rising cautious of TikTok, which has amassed over 100 million customers within the nation.
India has banned hundreds of apps, together with TikTok, PUBG Cellular, Battlegrounds Cellular India and UC Browser, with affiliation to China previously two years amid skirmishes on the border of the 2 neighboring nations.
New Delhi mentioned it had banned the apps as a result of they posed threats to the “nationwide safety and defence of India, which in the end impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India.”
TikTok had over 200 million month-to-month energetic customers in India and counted the South Asian nation as its largest worldwide market by customers previous to the ban.
“India’s robust management has been informative and useful as we have now debated banning TikTok within the US,” Carr told the Indian paper (paywalled). “For many who argue that there isn’t any strategy to ban an app, India is an instance of a rustic that has carried out it and carried out it efficiently.”
The U.S. Home banned TikTok on all House-managed devices last week, citing a “excessive danger as a result of quite a lot of safety points.” The transfer adopted almost two dozen states a minimum of partially blocking the app from state-managed gadgets over concern that China may use it to trace Individuals and censor content material.
“When you take a look at the historical past of TikTok’s malign knowledge flows and its deceptive representations, I don’t see a path ahead for something apart from a blanket ban working,” he instructed the newspaper.
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