US Stiffens Its Stance Against TikTok: Advances Bill to Ban It Across the Country

A bill that could cause a blanket ban on the popular Chinese app TikTok in the US moved into a key phase in Congress today amid complaints about its alleged use. for espionage with respect to China and the social network itself refuses.

Tiktok is one of the largest social networks in the world, with over one billion monthly active users. As of January 2023, TikTok reaches 20.4% of Internet users over the age of 18 in the world. Its owner is the Chinese company ByteDance The text, presented by a Republican lawmaker, would give President Joe Biden the authority to completely ban the app, a subsidiary of the group bytedance.

The powerful Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives approved it Wednesday morning thanks to the votes of the Republicans alone.

“Make no mistake, TikTok is a real security threat” to the country, warned Republican Michael McCaul, author of the bill.

“Anyone who has downloaded TikTok on their device has offered the Communist Party Chinese a back door for all your personal information,” he said in a statement quoted by AFP news agency.

Controversy: the app’s response.

Banning the app would amount to “gagging the freedom of speech” of millions of Americans, protested TikTok, which claims it has more than 100 million users in the United States.

To be adopted, the text must now be voted on in a plenary session of the House of Representatives e then by the senate and if it is approved, it is also up to Biden to avail himself of the possibility of vetoing it.

Many lawmakers view the short-form video platform as a threat to national security.

They fear, along with a growing number of Western governments, that China may access user data around the world through this app, something TikTok has denied for years.

Yesterday the United States, Canada and Denmark decided to remove the device from the cell phones of government or parliamentary personnel for security reasons in the light of allegations of espionage, which for Beijing constitutes an “abuse of state power”.

The official position: 30 days on official cell phones.

The White House has given federal agencies 30 days to withdraw enforcement of government electronic signals, in accordance with a law passed by Congress late last December that also banned their use in the House of Representatives and the Senate. .

This decision, also adopted yesterday by Canada, was criticized by the Chinese government, which denounced a “abuse of state power” from Washington.

“We strongly reject the wrong practice of the United States of generalizing the concept of national security, abusing state power and unreasonably suppressing the enterprises of other countries,” protested Mao Ning, spokesman for China’s foreign ministry.

At present, the government ban does not apply to companies in the United States that are not associated with the federal government or to the millions of citizens who use the popular application, through which users share videos.

For its part, the Danish Parliament has reported that it has asked its deputies and all its staff to uninstall TikTok from mobile devices provided for security purposes.

According to the institution in a statement, the measure was taken due to the “risk of espionage” following recommendations from the Danish Center for Information Security.

A similar move was taken by Canada, which announced it would ban the app on the grounds that it “an unacceptable level of risk” to privacy and security.

The decision was described as “curious” by a spokeswoman for the Chinese company, who specified that it was taken “without citing any specific safety issues” and regretted that the authorities were not informed contacted the company before the official announcement.

Two major European Union (EU) institutions also ordered similar initiatives last week, in a decision the company deemed “wrong”.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, announced the ban on Thursday to protect itself “against cybersecurity threats and actions” and defined a maximum deadline of March 15th.

In tune, the European Parliament (EP) today ordered all its staff to remove TikTok from their work devices over fears of espionage.