India has set an ‘incredibly important precedent’ by banning TikTok, says FCC commissioner – businessroundups.org

India set an “incredibly important precedent” by banning TikTok two and a half years ago, FCC commissioner said, predicting a similar fate for Chinese giant Bytedance app in the US.

FCC commissioner Brendan Carr warned that TikTok “works as a sophisticated surveillance tool,” telling India’s Economic Times daily that banning the social app is a “natural next step in our efforts to secure the communications network.”

The Federal Communications Commission senior Republican said he is concerned that China could use sensitive and non-public data from TikTok for “blackmail, espionage, foreign influence campaigns and surveillance”.

“We need to follow India’s example more broadly to ban other nefarious apps as well,” he said.

Carr’s comments further illustrate growing pressure among US states and lawmakers to become increasingly cautious about TikTok, which has amassed more than 100 million users in the country.

India has banned hundreds of apps over the past two years, including TikTok, PUBG Mobile, Battlegrounds Mobile India and UC Browser, with ties to China amid skirmishes on the border of the two neighboring countries.

New Delhi said it had banned the apps on the grounds that they pose a threat to India’s “national security and defence, ultimately undermining India’s sovereignty and integrity”.

TikTok had more than 200 million monthly active users in India and counted the South Asian nation as the largest international market by users prior to the ban.

“India’s strong leadership has been informative and helpful as we debated banning TikTok in the US,” Carr told the Indian newspaper (paywall). “For those who argue that there is no way to ban an app, India is an example of a country that has done it and done it successfully.”

The US House banned TikTok on all House-controlled devices last week, citing a “high risk due to a number of security vulnerabilities”. The move followed nearly two dozen states that at least partially blocked the app from state-owned devices over concerns that China could use it to track Americans and censor content.

“If you look at the history of TikTok’s malicious data streams and misleading representations, I see no other way forward than a blanket ban,” he told the paper.