Last Update: February 02, 2023, 17:15 IST
Tiktok is also facing the same fate as India, the US Ministry is worried about its popularity
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, should be removed from the app stores run by Apple Inc and Alphabet’s Google as the short video social media app poses a risk to national security.
WASHINGTON: TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, should be removed from the app stores run by Apple Inc and Alphabet’s Google because the short video social media app poses a risk to national security, said Senator Michael Bennett, a Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. said in a statement letter written on Thursday.
The app, which Congress has already banned from federal government devices, has come under increasing criticism over concerns that China’s government could use it to harvest data on Americans or advance Chinese interests.
“No company under the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has the right to collect such extensive data on the American people, or nearly a third of our population,” Bennett wrote in a letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple. shouldn’t have the power to curate.” CEO Tim Cook.
“Given these risks, I urge you to remove TikTok from your respective app stores immediately,” he wrote.
Prior to Bennett’s letter, Republicans have largely taken the lead on TikTok and national security concerns, though Democratic Senator Dick Durbin previously urged Americans to stop using the app.
In the House, which is now Republican-held, the Foreign Affairs Committee plans to hold a vote this month on a bill aimed at curbing the use of TikTok in the United States, the committee confirmed.
In 2020, then-President Donald Trump attempted to block new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions, which would have effectively blocked TikTok’s use in the United States, but the move was rejected by the courts.
At the same time, the company says that the Chinese government cannot access the personal data of US citizens or manipulate the content of the app.
TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to appear before the US House Energy and Commerce Committee in March.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)