Insider

Your all-access pass to FP

What TikTok Has on You

The social media app’s data collection practices are not unlike its competitors’, but its links to China add a sinister layer to the debate.

By
A young man holding a phone casts a shadow as he walks by an ad for social media company TikTok in Berlin.
A young man holding a phone casts a shadow as he walks by an ad for social media company TikTok in Berlin.
A young man holding a phone casts a shadow as he walks by an ad for social media company TikTok in Berlin on Sept. 21, 2020. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

TikTok wants to convince the West that it’s just another social media platform, even as the immensely popular short-form video app has been banned from U.S. federal government devices and by several state governments, too. Several lawmakers and officials want to go even further and ban TikTok completely. 

Rishi Iyengar is a reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @Iyengarish

Join the Conversation

Commenting on this and other recent articles is just one benefit of a Foreign Policy subscription.

Already a subscriber? .

Join the Conversation

Join the conversation on this and other recent Foreign Policy articles when you subscribe now.

Not your account?

Join the Conversation

Please follow our comment guidelines, stay on topic, and be civil, courteous, and respectful of others’ beliefs.

You are commenting as .

More from Foreign Policy

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.

At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment

Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.

How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China

As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.

What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal

Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.

A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.
A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.

Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust

Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.