Arguably the most popular video game streamer of all time,Tyler “Ninja” Blevinshas a massive presence on social media, with over six million followers on Twitter alone. Ninja and his wife Jessica Blevins have both created content on the popular social media app TikTok as well, but now Ninja has decided to delete it from all of his devices.
Ninja announced the deletion of his TokTok app on Twitter, and explained why he decided to do so. According to Ninja, he deleted TikTok because of its “data farming” and because it is “owned by China.” Despite this, Ninja also had some praise for the general idea behindTikTok, and stated that he hopes a different, “less intrusive” company will step up to make a similar app. “Such funny and amazing content on the app from influencers,” he said.
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At the time of this writing, Ninja’s TikTok account is still active with 4 million followers, so it seems the streamer won’t be completely removing himself from it, or just has yet to do so. That being said, Ninja hasn’t actually uploaded a video on TikTok since May 27.Jessica Blevins, meanwhile, last uploaded a TikTok video on June 25, and has a sizable following on the platform, with over 440,000 followers at the time of this writing.
Ninja’s reason for deleting TikTok echoes concerns shared by many others about the app. There is some concern that TikTok could potentially be used to share data with the Chinese government, which is partly why the US government has discussed banning the app entirely. Some countries have already taken the initiative on that front, withIndia banning TikTokand a variety of other Chinese-owned apps.
TikTok has responded to these concernsby pointing out that it is run by an American CEO, and claiming that it will never share information with the Chinese government. The app has been plagued by security concern controversies and other issues in the past, but it has attempted to rectify those concerns as well. Whether or not TikTok’s efforts to improve its image in regards to data farming and general user security actually work remains to be seen, however.
Ninja, meanwhile, is somewhat in limbo after the shutdown of Microsoft’s Mixer streaming service. Ninja streamed on YouTube recently, but reports indicate thatYouTube is currently competing for Ninja’s exclusivitywith both Twitch and Facebook Gaming. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see where he ends up.
