India set an ‘incredibly important precedent’ by banning TikTok, FCC Commissioner says

India established an “incredibly important precedent”. banning TikTok was two and a quarter years ago , FCC commissioner said. He also predicted a similar fate in the U.S .

for the Chinese giant Bytedance App.

Brendan Carr (Commissioner of the FCC) warned that TikTok is “a sophisticated surveillance tool.” He told Economic Times in India that banning the social network is a “natural next steps in our efforts to secure the 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 to weed out any other nefarious applications as well,” he stated.

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 , apps, including TikTok and PUBG Mobile, Battlegrounds Mobile India, and UC Browser. This was in spite of skirmishes at border of two neighboring countries.

New Delhi stated that it had banned the apps due to threats to the “national security of India and defense of India, which ultimately impinges on the sovereignty and integrity India .”

TikTok had over 200 million monthly active users in India and counted the South Asian nation as its largest international market by users prior to the ban.

“India’s strong leadership was informative and helpful as the US debated banning TikTok,” Carr 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 from all House-managed devices last citing “high risk due to security issues”. The move came after nearly two dozen states had at least partially blocked the app from state-managed phones last week over concerns that China could track Americans and censor their content.

” “If you look at the history and misleading representations of TikTok’s data flows, I don’t see any way forward except a blanket ban,” he said to the newspaper.