Is tiktok going to be banned on July 8th?: According to a report from CNBC, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr has requested that Apple and Google remove TikTok from their respective app stores due to security concerns. This has left fans of the app wondering whether it will be prohibited beginning July 8.
TikTok has one billion monthly active users across the globe, making it the social media platform that has been downloaded the most.
The site’s content, which includes dance videos, challenges, tutorials, and various filters, has helped it gain a lot of users.
However, a recent letter from an official with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has become the focus of rumors regarding the possibility that the app will be removed from app stores.
FCC Regulator’s Letter: What’s the matter
On June 28, Brendan Carr, a regulator for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), used his Twitter account to send a letter to Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, and Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Alphabet, which is Google’s parent company.
According to CNBC, Carr wrote a letter in which he urged Apple and Alphabet to remove the social media platform from their apps, citing a “unacceptable national security risk.” Carr’s letter was sent in response to a previous investigation by CNBC.
Carr asserted that it is obvious that TikTok presents an unacceptable risk to national security due to the extensive data it collects combined with Beijing’s apparently unchecked access to that data. “It is clear that TikTok poses an unacceptable risk,” Carr said.
“But it is also clear that TikTok’s pattern of conduct and misrepresentations regarding the unfettered access that persons in Beijing have to sensitive US user data… puts it out of compliance with policies that both of your companies require every app to adhere to as a condition of remaining available on your app stores,” the letter reads. “TikTok’s pattern of conduct and misrepresentations regarding the unfettered access that persons in Beijing have to sensitive US user data…”
Is tiktok will be banned on July 8th?
No, TikTok will not be banned on July 8, 2022, nor will Apple and Google stores remove it on this date.
Carr’s letter stated that Apple and Alphabet should provide responses to him by July 8 if they failed to remove TikTok from their respective app stores.
Carr stated in his letter that the statements should address “the basis for your company’s conclusion that the surreptitious access of private and sensitive US user data by persons located in Beijing, along with TikTok’s pattern of misleading representations and conduct, does not violate any of your app store policies.”
In addition, The Verge reports that the FCC lacks the authority to ban apps.