Soon after the Indian government red-flagged 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, America has also been considering to ban the apps, amidst the rising privacy concerns over Chinese apps including TikTok. After the US Secretary of State and the US NSA batting for the ban on the Chinese app, 25 US Congressmen have now written to the US President to consider banning the app.
India took an extraordinary step of banning Chinese affiliated-apps, including TikTok, said US Congressmen
Praising India’s decision to ban 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok, the US Congressmen, in a strongly worded letter dated July 15, asked Trump not to trust these apps either.
The letter praised India for the “extraordinary” step it took in June to ban the Chinese affiliated-apps, including TikTok, due to national security concerns. Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) systemic campaign to collect and illicitly transmit user data to the Chinese govt is not unique to Indian consumers,” it read.
Stressing on the fact that TikTok’s privacy policy for the US residents is upfront about the vast quantity of user data it collects and shares with the CCP, the Congressmen said: “The US shouldn’t trust TikTok or other Chinese-affiliated social media websites/apps to protect Americans’ data, privacy or security. We urge you to take strong action to stop CCP’s sophisticated espionage campaign against our country and protect our national security,” said the US Congress members.
Adding that the recent finding in an Australian Strategic Policy Institute report said that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, works closely with the Chinese government to enable human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims by disseminating the CCP’s state propaganda, the Congressmen also revealed that “ByteDance is also required under Chinese law to provide seats on the company’s board of directors to CCP officials, further cementing the authoritarian government’s role in setting these policies.”
The Congressmen concluded by urging Trump to take strong action to stop the CCP’s sophisticated espionage campaign against America and protect American’s data, privacy or security.
Banning TikTok and other Chinese apps would take away China’s ‘big espionage tool’: US NSA
Yesterday, US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien had opinioned that by banning the app, America would take away China’s ‘big espionage tool’. “India has already banned those apps, as you know. And if they lose India and the United States, they lose some western European countries, that takes a big tool away from the espionage work or the surveillance work of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party),” the US national security advisor said.
US President too had said that banning TikTok is ‘one of many’ ways he is looking to hit back at the Beijing government over the coronavirus. His comment had come one day after Michael Pompeo the US Secretary of State said that his country is ‘certainly’ looking at banning the app, along with other Chinese apps that threat data security.
India bans TikTok
On June 29, the Indian government had banned 59 China-linked apps, including TikTok for being a threat to national security. The move came after the violent Galwan Valley clash in Ladakh which took place because of China’s attempts to unilaterally change status quo. India had lost 20 of its brave soldiers in the standoff.
