Beijing –
The US government’s ban on the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok reveals Washington’s own insecurity and is an abuse of state power, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
The US government “overextends the concept of national security and abuses state power to suppress companies in other countries,” Mao Ning said at a daily briefing. But can you be so afraid of your favorite young man’s favorite app?”
The White House is giving all federal agencies 30 days to purge TikTok from all government devices in guidance issued Monday. yeah.
TikTok is used by two-thirds of American teens, but in Washington, China uses its legal and regulatory powers to obtain users’ personal data, misinform There are concerns that it may spread a profitable narrative.
Congress and more than half of the states in the US have so far banned the use of TikTok on government-issued mobile devices.
Others have moved to apply the ban to apps or websites owned by ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese private company that owns TikTok, which moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.
China has long blocked a long list of foreign social media platforms and messaging apps, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Washington and Beijing are at odds over a myriad of issues, including trade, computer chips and other technology, national security and Taiwan, and earlier this month they spotted and shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the United States. bottom.
on monday, Canada has announced it will join the US in banning TikTok. From any government-issued mobile device.
“With the government taking the important step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones, many Canadians, from businesses to individuals, are concerned about the security of their data. I think we’ll think it over and maybe make a choice,” said the Canadian Prime. Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters after the announcement.
Mona Fortier, president of the Canadian Ministry of Finance, said Canada’s chief information officer had determined that TikTok “posed an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”
“On mobile devices, TikTok’s data collection methods give us a fair amount of access to content on mobile phones,” said Fortier.
The app will be removed from government-issued phones of Canada on Tuesday.
European Union authorities announced last week that they had temporarily banned the use of TikTok on employee phones as a cybersecurity measure.
TikTok has questioned the ban, hasn’t been given a chance to answer questions, and has cut the government off from the platform loved by millions.
