FCC Commissioner: India established an “incredibly important precedent” by banning TikTok

India set an “incredibly important precedent” by banning TikTok two and a half years agoFCC Commissioner stated this as he predicted a similar outcome for Bytedance in China.

Brendan Carr, Commissioner of the FCC, warned that TikTok “operates as a sophisticated surveillance tool,” and told the Indian daily Economic Times that banning the social app is a “natural next step in our efforts to secure communication network.”

The senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission said he is worried that China could use sensitive and non-public data gleaned from TikTok to “blackmail, espionage, foreign influence campaigns and surveillance.”

“We need to follow India’s lead more broadly to weed out other nefarious apps as well,” he said.

Carr’s remarks further illustrates a growing push among U.S. states and lawmakers that are increasingly growing cautious of TikTok, which has amassed over 100 million users in the nation.

India has banned hundreds of appsPUBG Mobile and Battlegrounds Mobile India are just a few of the many games that were played by UC Browser.

New Delhi said it had banned the apps because they posed threats to the “national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India.”

TikTok had more than 200 million active monthly users in India, and the South Asian country was its largest international market prior to the ban.

Carr stated, “India’s strong leadership was informative and helpful as the US debated banning TikTok.” told the Indian paper (paywalled). “For those who argue that there is no way to ban an app, India is an example of a country that has done it and done it successfully.”

The U.S. House banned TikTok on all House-managed devices last week“High risk” due to security issues, she said. Nearly two dozen states had blocked the app from their state-managed devices at least partially, fearing that China might use it to spy on Americans and censor content.

“If you look at the history of TikTok’s malign data flows and its misleading representations, I don’t see a path forward for anything other than a blanket ban working,” he told the newspaper.