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The U.S. White House is considering blacklisting TikTok, effectively preventing Americans from using the popular short video app, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
It's one of the options the White House is considering in an effort to block access to personal data on TikTok.
One proposal the White House is carefully considering, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, is to put TikTok's parent company, ByteDance on the U.S. Department of Commerce's "entity list".
The move will make it extraordinarily difficult for U.S. companies to provide technology for TikTok. The restriction, which covers software, means that Apple and other app stores won't be able to offer TikTok updates through their platforms.
The "entity list" is one of the measures being discussed, the report said citing a senior US government official. The U.S. government is weighing ways to ensure that other countries cannot access Americans' personal data. The official said the U.S. government will come to a conclusion within a month.
The official also said that the United States government was aware of the public popularity of TikTok and was also looking at whether a method existed. It would both allow people to use TikTok and protect Americans' private data from being accessed.
The U.S. government is also considering invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) to treat TikTok as an unusual and particular Threat to U.S. national or economic security.
While IEEPA allows the U.S. government to use the entity list option, it also sets the stage for other restrictions on TikTok.
ByteDance is looking at strategic alternatives, including a possible spin-off of TikTok as a US company, according to a report earlier this week by the Hong Kong Economic Times, which cites sources with knowledge of the matter.
Previously, it was reported that ByteDance was planning to restructure TikTok and that the company was considering either locating TikTok's headquarters overseas or setting up a new management board to ease the U.S. politicians' concerns.
US bank Wells Fargo has asked employees to delete social network TikTok from their work phones due to concerns about the security.
US bank Wells Fargo asks employees to delete TikTok from work phones
The bank's staff at the eCommerce group had received a memo early on Friday demanding TikTok be uninstalled from any device that accessed corporate email, citing “security risks” related to the app.
Amazon also told employees last week to delete TikTok from mobile devices they use to access company email, but it later said that was a mistake.
In a statement, a company spokesperson said an email urging employees to immediately remove the short-video app from their devices was sent "in error."
