Could time be running out for TikTok?
A coalition of Republican and Democrat U.S. congressional representatives appears to be inching closer to the idea of an outright ban on TikTok in the United States that would include its removal from the Apple and Android app stores.
The idea, which would follow a ban on the campuses of many universities and on devices owned by government agencies, reflects growing pressure in the European Union and, above all, the precedent of total prohibition in India two-and-a-half years ago.
This is a social network that deserves such a fate: besides putting foreign users’ data directly in the hands of the Chinese government and being used to spy on Western journalists, it is systematically dumbing down an entire generation, promoting harmful content with alarming frequency by its managers, and whenever Beijing decides, someone at TikTok hits a magic button, and makes something go viral. And all this at the same time as it is fast-becoming a source of news and a search engine for young people, while in China it hosts educational and cultural content.
In the run up to an appearance before a Congressional committee in March by TikTok’s CEO, the app’s future is uncertain. But while we know that TikTok gives its users’ data to the Chinese government and that it is even the Chinese government itself that decides what TikTok users see, its…
