The video-sharing social media platform is the No. 1 app on the Google Play Store and number two on Apple App Store, and has been downloaded more than 165 million times by US consumers. The app is now a source for everything from viral dance routines to pranks on the President, and has propped up the plush lifestyles of teen influencers living in Los Angeles "collab houses."
But TikTok's success — and its status as the first Chinese-owned social media platform to garner widespread adoption outside its home market — is looking increasingly tenuous.
US officials say they're considering banning the app over security concerns related to TikTok and its parent company, Beijing-based internet company ByteDance, following a similar decision by India. In the meantime, at least one US corporation is already taking action to restrict use of the app on company phones. The situation has TikTok scrambling to try to prove its reliability.
At the same time, the company joined other big tech firms in pulling out of Hong Kong after China imposed a controversial national security law. And TikTok's competitors have proven eager to pounce on its challenges and try to win over its audience with similar offerings.
"One of the things that troubles me about it is, it's something that is counter to the spirit of the internet," said Mark Lemley, a law professor at Stanford who teaches internet law.
"I think something significant is lost there if the only apps we get are US apps or apps from approved countries. We lose out as consumers on technology that people like ... but in the long run the US also loses out economically, because we have been the great driver of the Internet."
Possible trouble ahead
TikTok has already lost access to one of the world's largest digital markets.
India banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps last month following a border clash between India and China, citing a "threat to sovereignty and integrity." The app had been downloaded in India more than 660 million times since 2017, and some of its top stars live in the country.
Now, Trump administration officials are considering a similar measure.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News' Laura Ingraham earlier this month that the White House is "looking at" banning Chinese apps, including TikTok, and said US officials are "taking this very seriously." Pompeo added that people should only download TikTok "if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party."
On Wednesday, Pompeo said, "we hope to have a set of decisions shortly" with regards to the app.
"We're working through a process where all the relevant agencies and the private sector are getting to say their piece," Pompeo said in a live interview with The Hill. "Whether it's TikTok or any of the other Chinese communications platforms, apps, infrastructure, this administration has taken seriously the requirement to protect the American people from having their information end up in the hands of the Chin
