Government source clarifies TikTok ban in Jordan

With US President Donald Trump signing a law forcing China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations to an American company, questions are being raised in Jordan about whether this could pave the way for lifting the ban on the platform, in place since December 2022.

A government source told Roya News that the decision to reinstate TikTok “is not tied to the nationality of its parent company, but rather to its commitment to addressing the loopholes that led to its ban in the first place.”

The source expressed hope that TikTok would revise its policies and standards to allow the government to consider letting the app return to the Kingdom.

“Any platform wishing to operate in Jordan must comply with local laws and have clear, effective mechanisms to remove content that incites violence and hatred,” the source added. “If the new management, whoever it may be, offers concrete guarantees and pledges full cooperation with Jordanian authorities, the ban will then be reviewed.”

- Why was TikTok banned in Jordan? -

The Jordanian government imposed the ban on December 16, 2022, after the Cybercrime Unit announced that the platform had “failed to deal with posts inciting violence and calls for chaos.”

- The US Deal: A change in ownership, not necessarily content -

The new US law is rooted in national security concerns, with Washington fearing the Chinese government could access data of millions of American users or use TikTok’s algorithms to sway public opinion.

The sale of TikTok to an American company aims to put its data and algorithms under US control.

However, this change in ownership does not necessarily translate into an immediate shift in content moderation policies.

Challenges such as hate speech and misinformation remain issues across all social media platforms, regardless of who owns them.