#tiktok #tiktokbanned #whyistiktokbeingbannedintheus #tiktokban #istiktokbanned #tiktokbannedinus<br /><br />Analysts have suggested it is "just matter of time" until the US ban on TikTok spreads to allied countries<br /><br />and beyond - as long as the Trump administration presses ahead with it.<br />The app will be banned in America from Sunday after US lawmakers ruled it was a national security risk<br /><br />because of owner ByteDance's ties to the Chinese government - ties it denies.<br />Incoming President Trump has indicated though that he is opposed to the ban and will find a way to reverse<br /><br />it.<br />If the US ban goes ahead, experts point to the previous ousting of Chinese and Russian tech companies on<br /><br />national security grounds as a potential blueprint for how the TikTok ban might spread around the world.<br />"There are big parallels between TikTok and what happened with China's Huawei and Russia's Kaspersky that<br /><br />indicates it's just a matter of time until a creeping ban takes affect," says Emily Taylor, Editor of the<br /><br />Cyber Policy Journal.<br />In both cases these companies were accused by the US of being a threat to national security - but no smoking<br /><br />gun was ever revealed by cyber security authorities.<br />The same has happened with TikTok.<br />Under President Trump, Kaspersky's flagship antivirus software product was banned from civil and military<br /><br />computers in the US after accusations arose in 2017 that it was used by the Kremlin in a hacking incident<br /><br />that was never proven.<br />The UK followed almost immediately and one by one other allies fell into line with restrictions, warnings or<br /><br />bans.<br />It took years but eventually a countrywide ban took effect last year in the US but it was all but redundant<br /><br />by then. Kaspersky closed its US operations followed by its UK offices saying there is no viable business<br /><br />there.<br />The company has always argued that the US government based its decision on the "geopolitical climate and<br /><br />theoretical concerns" rather than independently verifying risk.<br />According to research from Bitsight Kaspersky's decline in usage after the ban was pronounced, not just in<br /><br />the US but in at least 25 other countries too, even those with no overt public policy to ban the software.
