On Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that Washington’s restrictions on the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok are a misuse of state authority and show Washington’s vulnerabilities.
Mao Ning stated at a daily briefing that the U.S. government “has been overstretching the idea of national security and abusing state authority to repress other countries’ firms.” How insecure can the world’s leading superpower, the United States, be to be so afraid of a young person’s favorite app? ”
In a directive released on Monday, the White House directed all federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from any devices used by the government. TikTok is already not permitted on White House equipment.
Two-thirds of American teenagers use TikTok, but there are worries in Washington that China would try to gain private user data or spread false information or narratives favorable to China by using its legal and regulatory authority.
TikTok has been prohibited from government-issued mobile devices by Congress and over half of U.S. states.
Others have advocated that the ban be extended to any website or app run by ByteDance Ltd., the private Chinese business that owns TikTok and will relocate its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.
YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are just a few of the global social media sites and messaging services that China has long restricted.
Beijing and Washington are at war over a wide range of topics, including trade, computer chips and other technology, national security, Taiwan, and the recent downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the United States.
Canada stated on Monday that it would follow the U.S. in banning TikTok from any mobile devices used by the government.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters after the announcement, “I suspect that as the government takes the significant step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones, many Canadians from business to private individuals will reflect on the security of their data and perhaps make choices.
The Chief Information Officer of Canada found that TikTok “presents an unacceptable level of danger to privacy and security,” according to Mona Fortier, President of the Canadian Treasury Board.
Fortier stated, “TikTok’s data collection methods on a mobile device allow significant access to the contents of the phone.”
On Tuesday, the app will be taken off of phones provided by the Canadian government.
The executive branch of the European Union announced last week that TikTok had been temporarily removed from employee phones as a security precaution.
TikTok has questioned the restrictions, claiming that it hasn’t been given a chance to respond to inquiries and that governments are isolating themselves from a platform that millions cherish.
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