US to Implement India’s Strategy of Banning Chinese Apps Including TikTok
By: Nandika Chand | Last Updated July 7, 2020
The US is planning to go the Indian-way of banning Chinese apps including TikTok. This comes days after the United States and China conducted military exercises in the South China Sea. Over the past two years, tensions between the two countries have been high. And this has spilled into the arenas of trade, national security and technology.
Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, confirmed that they were looking at banning TikTok and other Chinese social media apps. He said they were taking it very seriously. “Whether it was the problems of having Huawei technology in your infrastructure we’ve gone all over the world and we’re making real progress getting that out,” the top diplomat said. “We declared ZTE a danger to American national security.”
The US has particularly cornerd Huawei and maintains that its technology could be used for espionage by Beijing and user data could be compromised. However, Huawei has denied it. In regards to the popular Chinese app TikTok, Washington has been monitoring it since last year. The Trump administration has raised concerns that it censors content and its data could be accessed by Beijing. Pompeo told FoxNews that Americans should download the social media app if only they want their private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.
Since its launch in the US in 2018, TikTok has amassed an estimated 65 million active users. The app is popular with teenagers but audiences of all ages find it appealing. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.
