Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

With US ban on TikTok on the table, opponent of move warns of retaliation against American firms

With US ban on TikTok on the table, opponent of move warns of retaliation against American firms

President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has started running Facebook ads warning about the Chinese-owned app. ‘Foreign tech companies should not be kept out of the US market because of rumours and innuendo,’ analyst says

As the Trump administration considers a ban on TikTok, the Chinese-owned short video app, an opponent of such a move says it would jeopardise US tech firms and global business norms.

“The US government should not ban TikTok simply because it is owned by a Chinese company,” said Daniel Castro, vice-president at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a public policy think tank in Washington.

The idea of a ban has been gathering momentum. Over the weekend, US President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign ran Facebook ads warning about TikTok. This week, the House of Representatives plans to vote on a Republican-backed amendment in a national defence bill that would ban federal employees from downloading or using TikTok on any government device.

TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based internet tech company ByteDance, has denied that it shares user data with China.


ITIF, which gets funding from Cisco and Google, among others, said in a statement that “if the US government has evidence to the contrary, it should share this information with lawmakers and the public”.

“However, foreign tech companies should not be kept out of the US market because of rumours and innuendo,” said Castro. “Doing so not only risks immediate retaliation for US companies, but it also would establish a global norm where countries are free to impose trade restrictions on digital goods and services for vague and undefined national security threats.”

TikTok has become a user sensation around the world, particularly among teenagers and young adults in the US. About 60 per cent of its 26.5 million monthly active users in the United States are between the ages of 16 and 24, the company said late last year.

As its popularity exploded, the company caught Washington’s attention at a time when the relationship between the two countries deteriorated. On the Hill, US lawmakers were concerned the Chinese company may be censoring politically sensitive content and could be obliged to send personal information to Beijing.

In October, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican, asked Joseph Maguire, who was then acting director of national intelligence, to look into whether the app posed “national security risks”.

“Security experts have voiced concerns that China’s vague patchwork of intelligence, national security and cybersecurity laws compel Chinese companies to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,” they wrote.

“Given these concerns, we ask that the Intelligence Community conduct an assessment of the national security risks posed by TikTok and other China-based content platforms operating in the US and brief Congress on these findings,” they said.

Others in the US Congress cautioned against an outright ban.

“TikTok is a potential security menace, but banning TikTok hardly confronts the profound threat China poses to our national security, economy, & democracy,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, tweeted on Saturday.

In November, the US government launched a national security review of ByteDance’s US$1 billion acquisition of US social media app Musical.ly, which was later renamed TikTok. The deal was completed in 2017.

Early this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US was “certainly” exploring a ban, citing concerns that the app has shared user data with the government in Beijing. Pompeo said people should use TikTok “only if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party”.

“I don’t want to get out in front of the president, but it’s something we’re looking at,” Pompeo told Fox News two weeks ago.
Morgan Ortagus, a State Department spokeswoman, said the administration “hasn’t hesitated if we think that there is a Chinese technology company that poses a particular threat like we have with Huawei or Hikvision”.

Pompeo, in his recent remarks, “was advocating for a more holistic look and view at Chinese technology companies and social media companies” and “how that affects American citizens”, said Ortagus.

TikTok has been dropped in other markets recently. Shortly before Pompeo’s comments, India banned it, along with other Chinese apps, after a border dispute between the two countries.

In early July, the company said it was leaving the Hong Kong market after Beijing approved a new national security law that critics say is the biggest threat to the city’s autonomy since the handover to Beijing in 1997.

In Monday’ s letter, ITIF’s Castro said: “TikTok has stated clearly and unambiguously that it has not and will not provide US user data to the Chinese government.”

“Instead, the US government should continue to push for better cybersecurity, effective regulatory enforcement, rule-based global data governance, and digital free trade.”




Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×