5 Countries That Have Banned TikTok | Which Country Banned TikTok First?

Tiktok may be a popular platform, but it did not go well in a lot of countries. Many users were discussing and flooding the internet asking what countries have banned Tiktok? There are several countries that have banned TikTok, and they don’t have any intentions of lifting the ban at all, at least not soon. 

The short video-making platform saw tremendous growth in its users following shortly afterwards its launch. The videos are edited in many ways, including music and trending songs playing in the background, dialogues from different movies and series, the playback speed can be increased or decreased, and multiple filters can also enhance the video. 

According to Wikipedia, till the last quarter of 2021, the app was downloaded 656 million times on iOS devices during the first half of the year and broke records to become the most downloaded app in the U.S. Because of this tremendous growth and popularity, many countries worried that the app might leak user information to the Chinese Government. This factor, along with many others, resulted in the ban of the platform. 

If we look at the stats today, the social media app TikTok has a massive number of 4.8 Billion users, making it one of the most downloaded apps in the world. Besides this, the app has been downloaded 3 billion times globally across both ios and android platforms. 

Countries That Have Banned TikTok for Different Reasons 

#1 India

Amongst the countries that have banned TikTok entirely, the first one is India. The ban was issued by the Indian Government on June 29, 2020, after a border clash with China. TikTok and 223 other Chinese apps, including WeChat and Shein, were also banned by the country. After the ban was made permanent in 2021, the Chinese government released a statement stating that it will cut more than 2000 jobs in India because of the ban. As of right now, there seem to be no plans for the ban to be uplifted since tensions between the two countries were at an all-time high for the past couple of years. A lot of TikTok content creators were also affected after the ban since it was their primary source of income.

#2 Pakistan 

The recent addition to the list of countries that have banned TikTok is Pakistan. The ban came after many users complained about the immoral and indecent content shared on the platform. In many ways, the content was offending the culture of Pakistan. TikTok representatives and officials had talks with the Pakistan Government to lift the ban on the platform allowing users to create engaging content and build better relations with the country. The Pakistan Government has banned TikTok a total of four times so far, however, the app is currently fully functional in the country.

Countries That Have Attempted Ban On Tiktok | How Many Countries Banned TikTok?

#1 Indonesia

Back in July 2018, Indonesia was one of the countries that attempted to ban TikTok. The ban was made after the Indonesian Govt. accused the platform of sharing inappropriate content, including pornography and videos that insulted their religion and culture on the public platform. However, when the TikTok ban was announced, the Government made it clear that the ban was temporary and will lift as soon as the platform removes the violating content. 

Ten days later, the ban was lifted after TikTok representatives assured the Indonesia Government that they would take down all the harmful content and formed 20 sensors to monitor the harmful content uploaded. 

#2 Bangladesh

In 2018, Bangladesh also became one of the countries that attempted to ban TikTok. Bangladeshi Government blocked internet access to the platform resulting in a temporary ban. Even though TikTok had no connection with the reasons for which the ban was made. The primary reasons behind the ban were rising pornography and gambling in the country. Later in 2020, after many users protested against the ban, Bangladesh Govt. presented a draft to the TikTok representatives asking them to remove the ten inappropriate videos from the country. 

TikTok had a positive response to this statement and removed all ten videos from their platform. Soon after this move, the TikTok ban was lifted in the country. Soon after, the Govt. released a statement stating that they don’t wish to ban the platform as far as users know how to have fun while staying within their limits. 

#3 United States

In 2020, former US President Donald Trump signed an order to ban TikTok in the next 45 days after the order was released. The main reason behind this move was the threat to the national security of the United States. However, later in September, TikTok filed a lawsuit against the former President that blocked his ban temporary ban order on the platform. 

However, several restrictions were also made against the TikTok operations by the Commerce Department that was rejected to get blocked in the TikTok v Trump lawsuit. In October, a new lawsuit Marland v Trump was filed by three TikTok influencers that stopped the Commerce Department from putting any restrictions on TikTok operations in the United States. 

However, The Commerce Department made efforts to allow the original ruling in the lawsuit filed earlier TikTok v Trump but was issued an injunction preventing TikTok from getting banned. So far the app is completely functional in the country.

#4 Greece

Recently, there have been some issues with the Greece Government as they planned to ban the app for various community violations. It is a given that the website representatives have been having conversations with the officials regarding the issue. Is TikTok banned in Greece, or will it be one of the few TikTok-banned countries? So far, it seems that the ruling for banning the app has been retracted and the app is once again functional in the country.

Additionally, there have been multiple content changes that are being made by the government for the app to continue operating in the country. The case is still ongoing, and there might be changes later. So, Greece might become one of the countries that might ban TikTok permanently. But the government will most probably ask the creators to manage their community guidelines accordingly and not ban the app.

#5 China

It might come as a surprise to you, that even though TikTok is being managed by a Chinese company, the app in itself is not available in China. The Chinese government has banned the usage of a lot of famous online websites and TikTok is one of them. The country has an alternate app named Douyin, which is not functional anywhere else in the world.

The fact that China in itself does not allow its citizens to access an application that is operating worldwide is quite questionable. Even though Douyin is exactly like TikTok, it is still kept separated from the application which simply raises suspicion among other countries.

Now you know which country banned TikTok, and how many countries have banned TikTok or attempted to ban the application. Do you think the ban on the application due to security reasons and the possibility of a breach in user data is justifiable?

Final Words

That was the list of 5 countries that have banned TikTok, including several that attempted to put a temporary ban on the platform. The ban came for reasons concerning the national security and integrity of these countries.

Tell us in the comments sections below what you think about the TikTok ban in these countries and if you are a part of any country that has banned TikTok. Do you know any other countries which don’t allow TikTok or are planning to ban the platform or limit its usage?