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TikTok ban: Donald Trump to BAN Chinese social media app TikTok in the USA - reports
CHINESE social media app TikTok may be banned in the US as President Donald Trump cracks down further on China's influence amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, it has emerged.
Fox News has reported that President Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is looking to ban the Chinese-made social media giant along with almost 60 similar apps.
Mr Pompeo said the ban is a response to fears the Chinese app may be used by the Beijing government to deliver propaganda and to spy on users.
Speaking to Laura Ingraham, Pompeo revealed that he and Trump are taking reports of Beijing surveillance and propaganda through TikTok and other apps incredibly seriously.
He said on The Ingraham Angle on Fox News: “We have worked on this very issue for a long time, whether its the problem of having Huawei technology in your infrastructure -- we've gone all over the world and we are making real progress getting that out -- we had declared ZTE a danger to American national security.
He continued: “With respect to Chinese apps on people's cell phones, I can assure you the United States will get this one right too.”
Pompeo stressed that he did not want to get ahead of President Trump’s announcement and reveal any specifics on potential laws.
But the secretary did add that banning the hugely popular app “is something we are looking at”.
He went on to warn American users of Chinese apps that they need to be careful, as they risk putting their private information "in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party”.
TikTok reported an astonishing 37.2 million American users in 2019, with user growth predicted to surge year on year by 21.9 percent.
The huge growth of the app means that it is expected to hit 45.4 million USA users by 2020’s end.
In June, it was reported by Forbes that the app was caught spying on millions of iPhone users again by Apple, after previously being caught in April.
Just days ago, the Indian government banned TikTok and many more Chinese-made apps saying they posed a danger to the nation.
In a no-holds-barred official statement a government spokesman said: “The apps are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order".
Almost 60 Chinese apps have been banned – triggering calls for similar action in the US and Australia.
The India ban – which also affected messaging app WeChat – was seen by international observers as a response to escalating tensions over a border dispute between the two powers.
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Recent clashes in the Ladakh region left at least 20 Indian troops dead.
India's Ministry of Information Technology said the nationwide ban was a response to "many complaints from various sources" about apps that were "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorised manner".
A Ministry spokesman said: "The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures.”
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It also follows TikTok withdrawing from Hong Kong after claims China's communists were "censoring pro-democracy posts", according to the Washington Post.
And today the firm announced it was pulling out of Hong Kong altogether.
In a statement made to the BBC, a spokesperson for TikTok said that the withdrawal was over the new security law’s invasive powers on citizens data rights, saying: "In light of recent events, we've decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong.”
Some TikTok users have complained about data harvesting, spying, and censorship abuses.
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