Claim of TikTok banned in the US is false
Claim: “अमेरिका ने चीनी कम्पनी Tik, tok को बैन कर दिया है!
भारत में भी बैन किया जाना चाहिए?
Yes or No रिप्लाई जरूर कर के बताऐ?”
Translation: “America has banned Chinese owned ‘TikTok’! It should be banned in India too? Reply in Yes Or No”.
The post has gone viral on social media with the claims that The United States of America has banned TikTok and has been asking people in India whether it should be banned here.
This particular post explains the social concerns of using TikTok, with an image saying that “America has banned Chinese app TikTok, and should India ban it as well?” The post is shared with over 5K shares, and 7.2K likes with most of them agreeing in the comment section.
The post was shared widely,
Many people on Twitter asked the same question,
अमेरिका ने चीनी कम्पनी Tik, tok को बैन कर दिया है!
भारत में भी बैन किया जाना चाहिए?
Yes or No रिप्लाई जरूर कर के बताऐ?
— Pushpendra Kulshrestha (@iArmySupporter) April 6, 2020
अमेरिका ने टिक टॉक को प्रतिबंधित किया !!
भारत में
TIK TOK को BAN करवाने के समर्थन में कौन-2 हैं ??— सौर्य मिश्र (StayHome Staysafe)🇮🇳 (@BjpSauryaMishra) April 7, 2020
The archive of the tweet can be found here.
Truth
Tiktok, a Chinese owned app with over 1.5 billion downloads worldwide, is banned for United States Army soldiers, not entire country. The ban came in December 2019. The soldiers could not use the app on government-owned devices. The move was done amidst the worry that the Chinese owned app could comprise national security.
“It is considered a cyber threat,” Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Robin Ochoa told Military.com, which broke the news on December 30th, 2019. Both the Navy and Defense Department sounded alarms on TikTok in early December, 2019.
The Navy previously told its members not to add the app, and to delete it from government-issued devices if it was already installed. The Defense Department also instructed employees to “be wary of applications you download, monitor your phones for unusual and unsolicited texts, etc., and delete them immediately and uninstall TikTok to circumvent any exposure of personal information,” according to military.com
Hence, the claim that the TikTok app has been banned completely in the United States of America is false. It is to be noted that the app is only banned for the US Army.
