Could TikTok be banned in the UK? What US bill means and where else the app is blocked
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TIKTOK could be banned in the US if its Chinese parent company refuses to sell. Fears over the platform posing a national security threat have fulled its potential prohibition — here's everything we know. In 2023, Concerns over the social media app escalated among governments in the US, Canada, the European Union (EU) and the UK over its pervasive data collection and ties to China.
![[TikTok logo on a phone screen with a blurred US flag in the background.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/tiktok-logo-us-flag-pictured-886963296.jpg?strip=all&w=960){kind=logo}
On 13 March, 2024, the US House Representatives passed a bill demanding the app be sold by owner ByteDance in six months. World's richest man Elon Musk was reported to be involved in talks to buy TikTok from China in January 2025. However, Tiktok has dismissed the claim as "pure fiction".
![[TikTok app on a phone.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/image_5620be.png?strip=all&w=620)
A TikTok spokesperson said: "We can't be expected to comment on pure fiction.". The app has amassed more than 1.8billion users worldwide since it launched nearly eight years ago. TikTok has called cascading government concerns "misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions" and has always refuted claims that it has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
![[TikTok app on a phone screen.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/image_ff67cd.png?strip=all&w=620)
There are concerns over security and data privacy at the Chinese-owned app. While TikTok is not banned for the average user in the UK, it was announced last year that the app would be banned on government staff phones. Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hinted at mirroring country-wide bans, saying the UK would "look at what our allies are doing".
