DeSantis Says He Is ‘Inclined’ to Ban TikTok

GOP candidate for president and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said would consider banning TikTok if elected, according to comments in an interview published Tuesday.

"I am inclined to not want TikTok in the United States," DeSantis told the Wall Street Journal. "I think it's creating a security vulnerability for us. I think they are mining a lot of data."

DeSantis has already taken action against the popular short form video-sharing app, having signed a bill banning TikTok in Florida schools in May. DeSantis also banned the app from government-issued devices.

TikTok has already been banned from all federally issued devices, and a bill banning the app from the United States was proposed earlier this summer. Montana became the first state to ban TikTok entirely in May 2023.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has long been suspected of giving the Chinese Communist Party access to user data. Despite the company’s initial claim that it does not collect user data, ByteDance revealed in November 2022 that China-based employees do have access to the data of users in the United States and Europe.

Chinese businesses are legally required to turn over data to the Chinese government, effectively giving the CCP access to user data. A former ByteDance employee has confirmed under oath that this occurs, with the CCP using TikTok to spy on protestors in Hong Kong.