There is big chasm between banning an app from fleet devices and banning both an app and a website in an entire country. Especially one that is so enormously popular.

I cannot recall the last time I've seen such a bipartisan push for something so monumental. Just within the past week, Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Mark Warner (D-VA) have been saying virtually the same thing: TikTok is an unprecedented national security threat.

they're literally just forcing them to build datacenters to keep the data for Americans in America (and Indians in India, etc). TikTok is already publicly hiring a ton of people for this

Once the data doesn't leave America this is going to go away.

This is not that much different than just complying with the type of regulations the EU has. The American version is just involving a lot more chest pounding and fluff because there's no existing laws to enforce to make them do this. So they just have to do it through threats and relatively minor policy changes (like banning on government phones).

I'm honestly more surprised that any social media apps were ever allowed on government devices.

Yes it is. The government is just trying to get the data to stay within the US. TikTok only needs facilities here (and maybe some sort of air gap) to comply.

Were US and European government officials/workers really big TikTok'ers to begin with?