The Dutch government is the most recent to instruct its employees to delete the TikTok app from their phones, which is owned by China.
The use of any apps from "countries with an aggressive cyber-programme aiming at the Netherlands or Dutch interests" is discouraged on phones provided by the government, according to the Netherlands' interior ministry's statement on Tuesday.
What you should know about TikTok and the reasons why some nations are restricting its use are as follows:
How well-known is the TikTok app and what is it?
More than one billion people actively use the social media platform TikTok, which is devoted to short videos, across 150 different nations.
According to the CEO of the app, more than 150 million individuals only use it in the United States.
Compared to Instagram, which has more than 1.2 billion members, Facebook has around three billion active users.Why are nations complaining about TikTok?
American politicians and national security officials have been the most vocal in voicing their concerns about the claimed security hazards posed by TikTok. They claim that the Chinese government may be able to access user data collected by the app.
After FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in November that TikTok poses hazards to national security, calls to ban it from government computers gained momentum.
Wray testified before a Senate Intelligence Committee in March that the Chinese government could use TikTok to manage software on millions of devices and promote stories that would polarize Americans over Taiwan or other issues.
The short-form video app initially came under fire in 2020 during the Donald Trump administration, which attempted to ban it from US app stores and cut it off from essential technical services.Which nations have TikTok restrictions?
The White House told federal organizations until February to uninstall the app from all equipment that belonged to the government.
A bipartisan bill that would have given Government the authority to outlaw TikTok in the US was supported earlier this month by the Joe Biden administration.
The use of TikTok on equipment provided by the government is prohibited in a number of places, including Wisconsin and North Carolina.
Canada also outlawed using the software on devices that were provided by the government in February. Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, expressed his desire that all Canadians—from corporations to ordinary citizens—would "think on the security of their own data and potentially make choices."
Similar actions have also been taken by Denmark, Belgium, India, Taiwan, and a number of organizations within the European Union, including the European Parliament.
Due to TikTok's failure to remove messages "inciting violence and disruption" after protests in the nation, Jordan banned the app in December 2022.It was prohibited in India and Pakistan in 2019 due to "morality issues," though both bans were later lifted. In June 2020, as tensions between China and India grew, India once more blocked the app.What claims TikTok?
Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, is scheduled to speak before the US Congress on Thursday. He claimed that the corporation has never shared and would never share American user data with the Chinese government in a written declaration sent to the US House prior to his appearance.
He said that no government or governmental organization owns or controls ByteDance, the parent firm of TikTok. He claims that worldwide institutional investors such as Blackrock, General Atlantic, and Sequoia hold 60% of ByteDance, the company's founders own 20%, and its employees, "including thousands of Americans," own 20%.
Earlier this month, TikTok expressed unhappiness with the White House's decision to back the Senate measure aiming to ban the app, saying it would be effectively outlawing "the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide".
How is China responding?
Beijing has charged that America is stifling TikTok and disseminating false information.
Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, claimed earlier this month that the US had not yet provided proof that TikTok posed a threat to its national security and was abusing its authority to repress foreign businesses by using the pretext of data security.
"Data security issues should not be exploited as a tool for some countries to abuse state power, overextend the definition of national security, and unjustifiably restrict other countries' enterprises," he said.
[zombify_post]
0 Comments