TikTok: how the west has turned on gen Z’s favourite app

US and European fears about China exploiting TikTok's data harvest and promoting Beijing's worldview look set to inspire an urgent overhaul in data privacy laws

The FBI has called it a national security threat. The US government has passed a law forcing officials to delete it from their phones. Texas senator Ted Cruz has denounced it as a Trojan horse the Chinese Communist party can use to influence what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think". And in March its CEO will defend its existence before the US Congress. For those unaware of the debate broiling on the other side of the Atlantic, the target of this strong rhetoric might prove surprising: an app best known for viral dances, launching generation Z media stars, and sucking teens down an hours-long content abyss.

But the rancorous debate over TikTok that began under the Trump administration has rolled on under President Biden. In addition to a ban of the app on all federal government devices, at least 27 states have blocked TikTok on devices they've issued, affecting a number of state schools and universities, too. A bipartisan bill, introduced in Congress last December, stipulates banning the app's use by everyone in the United States.