US, Some Western Countries Ban TikTok Use In Government Phones
TikTok a Chinese owned social media platform is on the verge of losing clients in the US and some western countries.
On Monday, the US White House issued a 30 day warning to all federal agencies to remove TikTok account from their government owned electronic gadgets, phones and computers.
The Congress, White House, US- armed forces and more than half US states have banned the use of TikTok on the phones and computers of government workers because of the fear of leaking their identity to critical sources.
TikTok parents company ByteDance is claimed to be a threat to users because it leaks one’s user date, location and browsing history to the Chinese government.
Further, ByteDance is alleged to push for propaganda and misinforming the Chinese authority something that may trigger violence between the US, some Western states and China.
Recently, some western social media companies such as LinkedIn and Yahoo downsized their activities in China claiming China has got strict laws on their business.
Besides that, Denmark and Canada have so far banned the use of TikTok in their government electronic gadgets for fear of information leakage to Chinese government via ByteDance.
In response to US’s move to ban TikTok use by federal agencies, China claims Biden’s government is infringing people’s rights to liberty and freedom of accessing information.
On the contrary, Beijing’s strict privacy law that specifies how companies can collect and store data, has harboured the working and businesses of foreign companies on its land.
A law China implemented in 2017 requires companies to give the government any personal data relevant to the country’s national security.
However, concerns were heightened in December when ByteDance said it fired four employees who accessed data on two journalists from Buzzfeed News and The Financial Times while attempting to track down the source of a leaked report about the company.
TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said the breach was an egregious misuse of the employees’ authority.
Following the happenings, some Western States and the US have decided to ban the use of TikTok by their government employees.
In addition, there are also claims that TikTok content is a threat to young users especially children. The US and some Westerners claim the explicit content uploaded on TikTok may spoil children at a young age.
Further more, even though there’s no tangible evidence that TikTok has turned over data leakage, but fears abound due to the vast amount of user data it collects.
Besides that, some intelligent experts say, there is no need for the US and Western states to ban TikTok use because the same information they claim the Chinese government will get, it’s also available on Facebook.
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