>> ... being banned essentially on executive whim:
The US Senate unanimously approved a bill banning federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices last month. So there is some consensus among lawmakers that some sort of privacy and/or security threat exists -- it's hardly on "executive whim."
You're tautologically correct (TikTok is banned because TikTok is banned!), but that still doesn't answer the question. Put another way: if whatever Tiktok is doing represents a categorical privacy/security threat, then why aren't they banning all apps that engage in said activity, instead of just Tiktok?
I suspect the answer is that Tiktok is just doing the same as Facebook etc, and that's unacceptable only because the mined data might go to China.
It is quite likely the US will continue to look at companies on which CCP can have control over. I agree it is odd to not have made a more comprehensive list.
Those two examples are fundamentally different and itβs silly to conflate individual action with coercing the app stores to discontinue supporting the app.
The US Senate unanimously approved a bill banning federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices last month. So there is some consensus among lawmakers that some sort of privacy and/or security threat exists -- it's hardly on "executive whim."