Chapter Six - Governments Take Notice

CHAPTER SIX

Governments Take Notice

AT FIRST, NO one cared where TikTok came from.
It was fun. It was free. It was everywhere.

But then someone asked a question:
Who controls the data?

TikTok wasn’t American.
It wasn’t European.
It was owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company legally bound to comply with the Chinese government.

Suddenly, TikTok wasn’t just an app.
It was a potential threat.

The first domino to fall was India.

In June 2020, after border clashes between Indian and Chinese troops, India banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok.
Citing national security, India claimed TikTok was mining user data and posed a surveillance risk.

Just like that, TikTok lost access to one of its biggest markets — over 200 million users, gone overnight.

Next up? The United States.

By mid-2020, TikTok had become a political football.
Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. government launched an investigation into TikTok’s data practices, citing fears that the Chinese government could access American user data.

Trump signed an executive order: TikTok must be sold to an American company — or face a ban.

Cue chaos.

Microsoft made a bid.
Then Oracle stepped in, promising to host TikTok’s U.S. data.
There were negotiations, lawsuits, delays — and a whole lot of confusion.

In the end?
The ban didn’t happen.
The deal stalled. Trump left office.
But the scrutiny never left.

Under President Biden, the U.S. renewed its pressure.
TikTok promised to store American data on U.S. soil, under Project Texas, managed by Oracle.
It wasn’t a sale — but it was a concession.

Meanwhile, Europe began its own investigations into TikTok’s data privacy and content policies.

The questions kept piling up:
– Where is user data stored?
– Who can access it?
– What content is promoted — and why?

TikTok denied all wrongdoing.
It insisted it was independent, transparent, and just wanted to entertain.

But governments weren’t buying it.
Because no matter what TikTok claimed, the truth was simple:

It was too powerful to ignore.
And it wasn’t one of them.

TikTok didn’t break any rules.
It rewrote them.

And now?
The world’s most powerful governments wanted control.