The White House is considering putting TikTok on a blacklist that would effectively prevent Americans from using the popular video app, as one option to prevent China from obtaining personal data via the social media platform, reported the Financial Times.
Three FT sources familiar with the debate inside the Trump administration said one proposal being looked into was to place ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the social media app, on the commerce department’s “entity list”.
That move would make it exceptionally hard for US companies to provide technology to TikTok. The restrictions would include software, meaning that Apple and other app stores could no longer provide updates over their platforms.
One senior US official said the entity list was one approach being debated, as the administration weighed how to ensure that China could not obtain the personal data of American citizens. The official said the administration would reach a conclusion within a month. “We are going to send a very strong message to China.”