Fortnite star Ninja deletes TikTok citing concerns over his privacy

Elite gamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins has announced that he has deleted TikTok from all his devices, citing privacy issues as the reason for his decision.

The streamer made the announcement in a tweet, stating that he is hoping to find another app that offers a similar experience without the "data farming" done by TikTok.

I have deleted the TIK TOK app off all my devices. Hopefully a less intrusive company (data farming) that isn’t owned by China can recreate the concept legally, such funny and amazing content on the app from influencers.

— Ninja (@Ninja) July 9, 2020

The announcement comes days after President Donald Trump declared that his administration is considering banning the app, which has long been marred by controversies concerning data misuse.

The Indian government recently banned TikTok due to national security concerns following a clash between Indian and Chinese troops on a shared border.

In his tweet, Ninja claimed that TikTok is "data farming" although there is no evidence to suggest that the app is collecting large amounts of user data. Despite the fears, many experts have insisted that there is no proof that TikTok is sending user data to the Chinese government. However, there are concerns that it may be used to influence American youth. In 2019, The Guardian discovered that TikTok's moderation guidelines even tried to suppress discussions of the Tiemann Square Massacre.

Ninja further implied that TikTok is illegal but there is once again no evidence to support any claims that the company has broken the law.

It will likely be extremely difficult for the US government to implement a ban on the app due to freedom of speech laws in the country. In addition, users can still access the app through a VPN if a ban were put into place.

However, even if the government may not be able to ban TikTok, users may choose to leave the app anyway. If popular content creators continue to leave the app, many fans are likely to follow.