TikTok is facing the possibility of being banned from app stores in the United States by January 19 unless the Supreme Court or President-elect Donald Trump intervenes and delays this decision.
According to multiple reports, there is an ongoing debate in the US about the ban, with the President-elect asking for a delay in the Supreme Court's decisions on this issue.
However, as the situation currently stands, legal experts believe nothing will change the outcome of the decision to ban the app.
Several countries have already banned TikTok due to concerts of data privacy, national security and inappropriate content. Countries like Afghanistan, India, Iran, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Nepal have made this decision for various reasons.
India was among the first major countries to ban TikTok in 2020. The Indian government gave reasons such as privacy risks and rising tensions with China as factors that led to the app being banned in the country.
In Pakistan, authorities took the decision to ban TikTok several times since 2020, following claims that the social media app promotes immoral content.
TikTok was banned in Afghanistan in 2022, along with the popular video game PUBG, because the Taliban claimed they wanted to protect young people from cheating.
Somalia, the only African country on the list, has also restricted TikTok's access due to concerns that the platform encouraged the sharing of harmful material and propaganda. The Somali government directed telecom companies to block access to the social media app along with other platforms that could be used to spread offensive content about their culture and religion.
Should TikTok get banned, millions of internet users in the US would have to seek other means to enjoy short-form videos.
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