European Commission Moves Towards TikTok Ban

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen indicated that a complete ban on the social media platform TikTok in the European Union is possible. Politico reported von der Leyen as saying, "It's not out of the question." She noted that the European Commission has become the first organization in the world to prohibit its employees from installing TikTok on their work phones. U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill approved by both houses of Congress, which included provisions to ban the social media platform "TikTok" if its parent company ByteDance does not sell its U.S. operations within nine months. The law allows the president to extend this deadline by up to a year. The campaign against the platform in the United States has been underway for several years, with Congress citing what it believes to be a potential connection between the company and the Chinese government, along with concerns about American security and personal data collection, which the social media platform denies.