Chinese Government to Ban TikTok Apps From Collecting U.S. Data

 

A spokesperson for TikTok issued a statement today responding to charges that the U.S. Congress was working to advance legislation. This would create another avenue for the US president to ban the popular video-sharing application from the country. 

There was a vote in the US House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier today that led to the passage of the Deterring America's Technological Adversaries (Data) Act. This would roll back US sanctions protections to creative content dating back 35 years to deter technological adversaries from targeting American institutions. Currently, the bill is being drafted in such a way that it would require the president to issue sweeping sanctions against Chinese companies that transfer personal data related to citizens of the US to organizations or individuals in China or "subject to the influence of China." 

The Coven tattoo studio owner is Angel Mae Glutz, who works in both fine art and tattooing. Most of Glutz's business is promoted on social media platforms, including TikTok. This has helped bring in clients from all over the world and promote her business. 

The ongoing battle on Capitol Hill between China-based TikTok and Congress may end up being a distraction for entrepreneurs like Glutz who rely on social media to market their businesses. Earlier this year, the White House banned TikTok's use on government devices and lawmakers are now considering legislation that would limit foreign adversaries' use of communication platforms and technology. 

Recently, many U.S. allies have expressed concerns about the video-sharing platform, most recently warning their staff to delete the app from their phones after the app caused an uproar among European Union institutions. In the Netherlands, the decision is being considered to follow the lead taken by Germany and Canada. 

According to CEO Shou Chew on Tuesday, TikTok now has 150 million monthly active users in the United States, which is a huge increase over the 40 million that the platform had earlier this year, while new calls are being made for its banning in the country. 

Generally speaking, TikTok poses a very low-risk danger to national security. This is in so far as the Chinese government can exercise influence over the app or its parent company which is not under its control. According to Chinese national security law, companies under its jurisdiction must comply with a wide variety of security activities under their jurisdiction to comply with the law. This is a serious issue since the public has little or no means to verify that leverage has been used in the way it has been described in the public domain. 

A violent border clash between India and China in 2020 caused a TikTok ban in India which in turn caused over 200 million TikTok users to be abruptly disconnected. Following the ban, TikTok has not returned to India. 

The United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, among others, have recently enacted laws restraining TikTok use on official, government devices. However, they did not ban the app on personal devices. Last year, TikTok was found guilty of a massive data scandal. It was revealed that several employees accessed users' data, including journalists, as part of TikTok's effort to combat leaks in the media and crack down on them. 

These employees were terminated from the company according to the statement. There has been a sharp rise in the number of laws proposed by the U.S. to ban TikTok from the country completely. Other lawmakers have proposed mandating that ByteDance sell the video-sharing platform or ban the app completely.