China has accused the United States of overreacting after the White House on Monday gave government agencies 30 days to ensure employees had removed the Chinese-owned video app TikTok on federal devices. The order follows similar moves by the European Union and Canada in recent weeks.
A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry Mao Ning accused the US of abusing state power in order to suppress foreign firms during a news briefing on Tuesday. She highlighted the importance of providing foreign companies in the US with an open, fair, and non-discriminatory environment.
In recent months, a growing number of Western officials have expressed concerns over the app - owned by Chinese firm ByteDance. TikTok has been subjected to numerous allegations that it harvests users' data and hands it to the Asian government, with some intelligence agencies raising warnings against confidential information getting exposed when the app is downloaded to government-issued devices.
However, TikTok insists that it operates no differently from other social media companies, adding it would never go along with an order to transfer data.
In the coming weeks, congressional Republicans could pass further legislation which would offer President Joe Biden to ban the video-sharing app nationally.
Following a review conducted by Canada's chief information officer, who ruled TikTok presented a "risk to privacy and security", the country has also imposed a new ban on the app on government phones starting from Tuesday.
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