Mao Ning, a Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, has remarked that the U.S. government bans on Chinese-owned video sharing app, TikTok reveal Washington’s own insecurities and are an abuse of state power.
The U.S. government “has been overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress other countries’ companies,” Mao Ning iterated at a daily briefing.
“How unsure of itself can the U.S., the world’s top superpower, be to fear a favorite young person’s favorite app to such a degree?,” Ning questioned.
In a guidance issued on Monday, February 27, 2023, the White House gave all federal agencies, 30 days to wipe TikTok off all government devices. The White House already does not allow TikTok on its devices.
TikTok is used by two-thirds of American teens, however, there is concern in Washington that China could use its legal and regulatory powers to obtain private user data or to try to push misinformation or narratives favoring China.
Congress and more than half of U.S. states have so-far banned TikTok from government-issued mobile devices.
Some have also moved to apply the ban to any app or website owned by ByteDance Ltd., the private Chinese company owning TikTok that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.
China has long blocked a long list of foreign social media platforms and messaging apps, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Washington and Beijing are at odds over myriad issues including trade, computer chips and other technology, national security and Taiwan, along with the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the U.S. and its shooting down earlier this month.
Also on Monday, February 27, 2023, Canada announced that it was joining the U.S. in banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices.
“I suspect that as government takes the significant step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones, many Canadians from business to private individuals will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps make choices.”
Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau
Canadian Treasury Board President, Mona Fortier opined that the Chief Information Officer of Canada had determined that TikTok “presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”
“On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone,” Fortier said.
The app will be removed from Canadian government issued phones on Tuesday, February 28, 2023.
The European Union’s executive branch said last week it has temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a cybersecurity measure.
TikTok has questioned the bans, saying it has not been given an opportunity to answer questions and governments were cutting themselves off from a platform beloved by millions.
Danish Lawmakers Urged To Remove Tiktok From Work Phones
The Danish parliament on Tuesday, February 28, 2023 urged lawmakers and employees with the 179-member assembly against having TikTok on work phones as a cybersecurity measure, saying “there is a risk of espionage.”
Danish parliamentary Speaker, Søren Gade said that an email has been sent out to lawmakers and employees with “a strong recommendation that you delete the TikTok app if you have previously installed it.”
The assembly acted after an assessment from Denmark’s Center for Cyber Security, which had said there was a risk of espionage. The agency is part of Denmark’s foreign intelligence service.
“We adapt accordingly,” Gade noted in a statement.
It was not immediately known how many Danish lawmakers have TikTok installed.
In recent days, several politicians have publicly announced that they have deleted the app from their work phone for cybersecurity reasons.
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