14 DAY TRIAL // The United States’ offensive against Chinese tech giants continues, and the next in the crosshairs might be none other than super-popular app TikTok.
According to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the United States authorities are currently looking into possible sanctions against a series of other apps too, with TikTok likely targeted by a potential ban in the country.
TikTok has become an Internet phenomenon, quickly taking over the number one place in app downloads on both iPhone and Android.
And despite being accused of spying for the Chinese government, TikTok, an app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, always reminded that user data is stored in the United States.
But Pompeo explains that those who download TikTok kind of agree with their private information to fall “in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”
ByteDance tight-lipped on the claims
In an interview for Fox News, Pompeo explains that a possible ban for several Chinese apps is currently on the table.
“We are taking this very seriously. We are certainly looking at it. We have worked on this very issue for a long time,” he said. “Whether it was the problems of having Huawei technology in your infrastructure we’ve gone all over the world and we’re making real progress getting that out. We declared ZTE a danger to American national security. With respect to Chinese apps on peoples’ cellphones, the United States will get this one right too.”
A decision on this is yet to be made, and the United States government hasn’t provided any statements on when exactly it could announce new sanctions against Chinese companies. At the same time, ByteDance has also remained tight-lipped on these new claims, so for the time being, it’s all more of the threatening phase of the dispute that nobody knows exactly how is going to end.