The american president suspects that the chinese intelligence to use the app for purposes that are detrimental to their country.
The president, Donald Trump announced on Friday that it would prohibit the United States the social network TikTok, suspected by Washington of being able to be used by the information chinese. “In regards TikTok, we forbid it in the United States,” said Donald Trump to journalists onboard the presidential plane Air Force One.
TikTok belongs to the chinese group ByteDance. The application has nearly a billion users in the world and is very popular with young audiences.
TikTok was the subject of an investigation by the CFIUS, the u.s. agency in charge of ensuring that foreign investment does not pose a risk to national security. Us officials expressed in recent weeks the fear that the very popular video platform is used by Beijing to do harm to the United States.
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Steven Mnuchin, the us Treasury secretary, had made it known Wednesday that he would make a “recommendation” on TikTok to the White House this week.
national Security
TikTok has often had to defend his links with China, where ByteDance has a similar application under a different name. It has always denied to share data with the chinese authorities and was assured that they did not intend to accept requests in this sense.
Friday, before the announcement of Donald Trump, the american media knew that the president was going to impose on the group ByteDance to sell TikTok. According to the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, the president was preparing to sign a formal order to compel the house-chinese mother to separate itself from the very popular application american, in the name of protecting national security. But he has finally announced the prohibition of TikTok in the United States and stated that he would act as soon as Saturday.
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a few days ago, TikTok was committed to having a high level of transparency and, in particular, to allow controls of its algorithms, in order to reassure the users and the regulators. “We’re not political, we do not accept political advertising, and we have no agenda. Our only goal is to remain a platform for lively and dynamic and appreciated by all,” said Wednesday in a note to the blog the boss of TikTok, Kevin Mayer. “The whole industry is examined closely, and with good reason. Because of the origins of the chinese company, we are examined even more closely. We accept it and we will rise to the challenge,” mentions Kevin Mayer.
James Lewis, program manager of technology policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, believes that the security risk incurred by using TikTok is “close to zero”. On the other hand, “it seems that ByteDance could be put under pressure by Beijing”, he added.
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Donald Trump, president of the United States
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The social network is also challenged elsewhere than in the United States. It is as well banned since the 30 June in India, where he had been placed at the top of the list of 59 applications chinese blocked by the New Delhi establishment on its territory in order to “ensure the security and sovereignty of cyberspace-indian”. Pakistan, muslim country, very conservative, has recently launched a “final warning” to the application of video-sharing TikTok, so that it removes it from its platform to content deemed “immoral, obscene and vulgar”.
