By banning TikTok, India created a “extremely important precedent,” according to the FCC Commissioner

“Bye-bye, giants.

The FCC’s Brendan Carr cautioned that TikTok “operates as a sophisticated monitoring tool” and said that banning the social media app is the “logical next step in our efforts to safeguard communication networks.”

The senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission expressed concern that China could utilize private and sensitive information obtained from TikTok for “surveillance, blackmail, espionage, and foreign influence campaigns.”

He stated, “We need to more extensively follow India’s approach to weed out such malicious programs.”

Carr’s comments further highlight a movement among American states and lawmakers to be more wary of TikTok, which has gathered over 100 million users throughout the country.

Due to border clashes between the two adjacent countries, India has banned hundreds of Chinese-affiliated apps over the past two years, including TikTok, PUBG Mobile, Battlegrounds Mobile India, and UC Browser.

The apps were prohibited, according to New Delhi, because they posed risks to the country’s “national security and defense, which ultimately compromise the sovereignty and integrity of India.”

Prior to the suspension, TikTok considered India to be its largest international market in terms of users, with over 200 million monthly active users.

Carr told the Indian newspaper that “India’s strong leadership has been enlightening and useful as we have contemplated banning TikTok in the US” (paywalled). India is an example of a nation that has banned apps and done so successfully for those who claim there is no method to do so.

Last Monday, the U.S. House forbade TikTok from being used on any of its controlled devices, claiming a “high risk owing to a number of security vulnerabilities.” The action came after around 20 states at least partially blocked the app from being used on state-controlled devices out of worry that China may use it to track Americans and restrict material.

He told the newspaper, “I don’t see a route forward for anything other than a blanket ban working if you look at the history of TikTok’s malicious data flows and its deceptive statements.