Full List of Countries that Have Banned TikTok Including Canada and US

TikTok, a Chinese Social Media platform which is owned by ByteDance took over the social media space by storm. No one really expected a Chinese social media app to trouble the dominance of other giant social media apps from the Unted States. TikTok is one of the youngest social media apps around, but it is the fastest growing social media app in the world. However, the glory days of TikTok do not seem to have a long lifespan.

Ever since getting into the limelight, has received a lot of criticisms over the safety of user data. In recent reports, Conservative MP Alicia Kerns warned Brits against the use of TikTok. She said the app was exposing the personal data of users. And was feeding Hostile threats like the Chinese Government with personal data of the users.

Meanwhile, ByteDance, the owners of TikTok have done all they could to settle disputes and appease concerns. Nonetheless, a couple of nations have either partially or fully banned the Chinese social media app for one or two reasons. Below is a thorough look at all the countries that have currently banned TikTok.

The United States government has revealed that it has ordered all of its federal employees to remove TikTok from all phones that was issued by the government. This report was issued on the 28th of February and explains that the action was taken to protect confidential data.

Meanwhile, China's foreign Ministry spokesperson has come out to criticize the action by saying: "We firmly oppose those wrong actions". The US government should respect the principles of market economy and fair competition. Stop suppressing the companies and provide an open, fair, and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies in the US”. “How unsure of itself can the world’s top superpower like the US be to fear young people’s favorite app like that,” He added.

Canada, a country with close relation to the United States has also taken a step to ban TikTok from all mobile devices. Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada came out to explain the reason behind this ban.

"I suspect that as government takes the significant step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones, many Canadians from business to private individuals will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps make choices".

He went further to add that “I’m always a fan of giving Canadians the information for them to make the right decisions for them.”

The banning fever in the European Union first started with the European Union and the EU Council. They temporarily banned TikTok from the phones of employees as a cybersecurity measure.

After this action, the European Parliament also revealed on Tuesday 28th February that they will also take similar actions. This time around the ban will not just be on government-issued devices. Employees at the parliament are also barred from installing TikTok on their personal phones that are linked to parliament related email accounts.

India happens to be one of the first countries to take a step in banning TikTok. The Asian country banned the app in 2020 together with other Chinese apps. This is because India claims these apps threaten its national security and defense.

Interestingly, India happens to be TikTok's largest market before the ban. TikTok users in India amounted to about 200 million.

Taiwan's ban came in 2022 when the Taiwanese government banned all government sector devices from using the app. This ban came because the government of Taiwan suspected the Chinese government of conducting cognitive warfare against Taiwan.

Pakistan has banned TikTok on several occasions, but the latest ban came in November 2021

The ban of TikTok in Afghanistan is still hanging in the air till date. In April 2021, Taliban spokesperson reported that the government was planning on banning the app. This is because the app is impacting the younger generation negatively. Another reason was the fact that the app is inconsistent with Islamic laws.

TikTok is totally banned in Iran as a whole. It does not matter whether government phone or individual phone. This is because the laws of TikTok contradicts with the laws of Iran.

Despite all these bans here and there, TikTok is still growing at a faster pace as more users keep getting onboard each day. Is the platform really a security threat or these allegations are just there to slow it down and totally kill it. Can TikTok get wiped out off the social media space entirely? Share your thoughts.