Why TikTok is being banned on government phones in US, EU and Canada?

TikTok app
TikTok app. (Image Credit: Collabstr/Unsplash)

Canada has joined the United States and European Union in enacting a ban preventing the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok from being installed on all government-issued mobile devices. The ban comes amid ongoing security concerns and discussions about the app related to data privacy.

U.S. — The White House has directed all federal agencies in the United States to remove TikTok from phones and systems within the next 30 days, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) confirmed.

Both the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate passed bills banning TikTok from government devices last year as part of a crackdown on Chinese companies amid national security fears that the app could be used to spy on Americans. FBI Director Chris Wray earlier raised national security concerns about TikTok, saying that it allows the Chinese “to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify next month before U.S. Congress where he will be asked about the company’s privacy and data security practices.

Europe — The European Parliament has banned TikTok from all of its staff devices due to serious concerns over cybersecurity. The European Parliament, European Commission, and the EU Council, the three top EU bodies, have all imposed bans on TikTok “in view of cybersecurity concerns, in particular regarding data protection and collection of data by third parties”. The European Parliament’s ban takes effect on March 20.

Canada — Canada has joined the US and EU in imposing a ban that prevents TikTok from being installed on all government-issued mobile devices amid widening worries about the app in Western countries.

Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh, who is known as a TikTok star and has nearly 879,000 followers on the video-sharing app, said he will deactivate his account. Jagmeet Singh, the leader of one of the biggest opposition parties, New Democratic Party, actively used TikTok to reach constituents and for his party’s digital campaign in the 2021 federal election.

Why TikTok is being banned?

TikTok is facing growing backlash and actions from Western countries due to worries about data privacy and security. Officials in U.S., Canada, and the EU have already taken steps to ban TikTok from being installed on government-issued mobile devices and have launched investigations into the app’s data handling practices.

Is the ban justified? ByteDance, the app’s parent company, has been accused of being a potential national security risk mainly due to its Chinese ownership. There has so far been no evidence that TikTok has turned data to the Chinese government.

While some people support the TikTok bans over worries that the Chinese government could access user data or spy on Americans, others differ. Evan Greer, director of the nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future, acknowledged potential privacy concerns but said that “it’s equally concerning that the U.S. government, and many other governments, already abuse and exploit the data collected by every other U.S.-based tech company with the same data-harvesting business practices”. Greer urged for a basic privacy law that bans all companies from collecting sensitive data.

US-China rivalry: Washington and Beijing are embroiled in various contentious issues such as trade, technology, national security, Taiwan, and more recently the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon by U.S. jets. The technological rivalry between the two countries, particularly over chip manufacturing, has further increased tensions, signifying deepening geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China.

TikTok (Image Credit: Solen Feyissa/Unsplash)
China’s response

Beijing has repeatedly denied sharing data with the Chinese government and any such intentions. China has criticized the EU’s decision to ban TikTok from official institutions, saying the move will negatively impact business confidence in Europe. “The EU claims to be the most open market in the world, but recently it has been taking restrictive measures and unreasonably suppressing other countries’ companies on the grounds of national security,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing.

On the ban in the U.S., China said it reflected Washington’s insecurities. The U.S. government “has been overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress other countries’ companies,” said Mao Ning. “How unsure of itself can the U.S., the world’s top superpower, be to fear a young person’s favorite app to such a degree?”

At the same time, China has long blocked several foreign social media platforms and messaging apps, including Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and YouTube.

TikTok limits screen time for teenagers

Amid growing security concerns, the tech giant TikTok announced new safeguards to help teens limit their screen time and be more intentional about how much of their day they spend on TikTok, the company said. TikTok users under 18 will now automatically have a 60-minute daily screen time limit. The app has also implemented other safety features, such as restricting direct messaging for under-16s and adding parental controls.

TikTok has over 1 billion users worldwide and has been downloaded over 210 million times in the United States alone. In comparison, Facebook had 2.9 billion monthly active users, Instagram has at least 2 billion users, WeChat has 1.3 billion and Twitter has around 500 million monthly active users, according to DataReportal.

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