US government bans on Chinese-owned video sharing app TikTok reveal Washington’s own insecurities and are an abuse of state power, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson has said. China, though, has itself long blocked a large list of foreign social media platforms and messaging apps, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The US government “has been overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress other countries’ companies”, Mao Ning said at a daily briefing on Tuesday. “How unsure of itself can the US, the world’s top superpower,…
Tag: TikTok
Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
Canada has joined the US and EU in enacting a sweeping ban preventing TikTok from being installed on all government-issued mobile devices, as western officials take action over the Chinese-owned video-sharing app. Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, did not rule out further action. “I suspect that as 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 own data and perhaps make choices,” he…
European Commission bans staff using TikTok on work devices over security fears
The EU’s executive body has banned its thousands of staff from using TikTok over cybersecurity concerns, a decision the Chinese-owned social video app has criticised as “misguided” and based on “fundamental misconceptions”. The European Commission sent an email to employees ordering them to delete the app from all work phones and devices, and any personally owned ones that use the commission’s apps and email. Employees have until 15 March to comply. A spokesperson said: “This measure aims to protect the commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited…
TikTok: how the west has turned on gen Z’s favourite app
The FBI has called it a national security threat. The US government has passed a law forcing officials to delete it from their phones. Texas senator Ted Cruz has denounced it as “a Trojan horse the Chinese Communist party can use to influence what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think”. And in March its CEO will defend its existence before the US Congress. For those unaware of the debate broiling on the other side of the Atlantic, the target of this strong rhetoric might prove surprising: an app best known…
TechScape: Is ‘banning’ TikTok protecting users or censorship? It depends who you ask
The US battle with TikTok over data privacy concerns and Chinese influence has been heating up for years, and recent measures have brought college campuses to the forefront – with a number of schools banning the app entirely on campus wifi. Students have responded, of course, on TikTok. Taking advantage of viral sounds, they have expressed outrage at their favourite app being blocked at universities like Auburn, Oklahoma and Texas A&M in the past few months. “Do they not realize people in college are actually adults?” one user wrote. “We…
TikTok has been spying on reporters – exactly no one is surprised
Hello and welcome to TechScape. Alex is now off on paternity leave, and in his place a rotating cast of writers will give their takes on the world of tech. Apologies to any readers who have begged Alex for fewer stories about Elon Musk and crypto, but in a post-Twitter takeover world there are no quiet weeks for tech reporters. In the last few weeks, Musk has handed over documents for the latest edition of the “Twitter Files” to controversial author Alex Berenson (with the not-so revelatory news that Twitter…
Why did the US just ban TikTok from government-issued cellphones?
The US government has approved an unprecedented ban on the use of TikTok on federal government devices. The restrictions – tucked into a spending bill just days before it was passed by Congress, and signed by Joe Biden on Thursday – add to growing uncertainty about the app’s future in the US amid a crackdown from state and federal lawmakers. Officials say the ban is necessary due to national security concerns about the China-based owner of the app, ByteDance. But it also leaves many questions unanswered. Here’s what you need…
US bans China-based TikTok app on all federal government devices
TikTok has been banned on all federal government devices in the US, with limited exceptions, after Joe Biden signed a $1.7tn (£1.4tn) spending bill on Thursday containing a provision that outlaws the China-based app over growing security concerns. The ban – which was approved by Congress in a vote last week – is a major step targeting the fastest-growing social media platform in the world as opponents express worry user data stored in China could be accessed by the government. Various government agencies will develop rules for implementing the ban…
TikTok banned on devices issued by US House of Representatives
TikTok has been banned from any devices issued by the US House of Representatives, as political pressure continues to build on the Chinese-owned social video app. The order to delete the app was issued by Catherine Szpindor, the chief administrative officer (CAO) of the House, whose office had warned in August that the app represented a “high risk to users”. According to a memo obtained by NBC News, all lawmakers and staffers with House-issued mobile phones have been ordered to remove TikTok by Szpindor. “House staff are NOT allowed to…
TikTok’s parent company fires four workers for improper access of user data
ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of popular video app TikTok, said on Thursday that some employees improperly accessed TikTok user data of two journalists and were no longer employed by the company, an email seen by Reuters shows. ByteDance employees accessed the data as part of an unsuccessful effort to investigate leaks of company information earlier this year, and were aiming to identify potential connections between two journalists, a former BuzzFeed reporter and a Financial Times reporter, and company employees, the email from ByteDance general counsel Erich Andersen said. The…