Skip to main content

Pompeo tells Fox News the US is 'certainly looking into' banning TikTok over privacy concerns

  • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that the US is considering banning TikTok over concerns of Chinese surveillance. 
  • Speaking to Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Pompeo warned that Americans should be wary of downloading the popular app unless they wanted their private data "in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party."
  • TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, though it maintains that it is an international company that operates independently from the Chinese government. 
  • India banned TikTok last week, along with dozens over other Chinese apps, citing concerns about national security and privacy of user data.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that the US is considering banning TikTok over concerns of Chinese surveillance.

Speaking to Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Pompeo said that the Trump administration was "certainly" looking at banning the viral video app. 

"We are taking this very seriously and we are certainly looking at it," Pompeo said. "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," said Pompeo.

"With respect to Chinese apps on people's cell phones, I can assure you the United States will get this one right too," he said. 

Pompeo warned that Americans should be wary of downloading the popular app unless they wanted their private data "in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party."

India banned TikTok last week, along with dozens over other Chinese apps, citing concerns about national security and privacy of user data. In a statement, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the banned apps "are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of state and public order."

Reports indicated that calls were being heightened in Australia to ban was the app, though TikTok Australia called the reports "not credible."

TikTok, one of the most downloaded phone apps in the world, is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. ByteDance has come under scrutiny in recent months over reports alleging ties to the Chinese Communist Party and allegations of censorship on its platform. Earlier this year, several US government agencies banned TikTok over concerns about cybersecurity.

Last year, the app issued a public apology after being accused of censoring videos that called out Chinese human rights abuses. Former employees have alleged TikTok restricts content dealing with "social and political topics."

TikTok says that despite its Chinese parent company, it is an international company that operates independently from the Chinese government. The company maintains that it has never received requests from the Chinese government to hand over user data, nor would it do so in the future.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Inside London during COVID-19 lockdown



Udimi - Buy Solo Ads from Tech Insider https://ift.tt/2Cfm7Q0
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

9 VCs in Madrid and Barcelona discuss the COVID-19 era and look to the future

Spain’s startup ecosystem has two main hubs: Madrid and Barcelona. Most observers place Barcelona first and Madrid second, but the gap appears to close every year. Barcelona has benefitted from attracting expats in search of sun, beach and lifestyle who tend to produce more internationally minded startups. Madrid’s startups have predominantly been Spain or Latin America-focused, but have become increasingly international in nature. Although not part of this survey, we expect Valencia to join next year, as city authorities have been going all-out to attract entrepreneurs and investors. The overall Spanish ecosystem is generally less mature than those in the U.K., France, Sweden and Germany, but it has been improving at a fast clip. More recently, entrepreneurs in Spain have moved away from emulating success in pursuit of innovative technologies. Following the financial crisis, the Spanish government supported the creation of startups with the launch of FOND-ICO GLOBAL, a €1.5 billi...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Stay Creative and Keep SEO in Mind

Information Technology Blog - - How to Stay Creative and Keep SEO in Mind - Information Technology Blog Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to customizing your website’s content to ensure that web browsers give your website a high SEO score. The sites with the highest SEO scores are featured on the search engine’s first page of search results for relevant searches.  71%  of the click-throughs happen with articles listed on the first page of results on the search engine. This means that if your website’s article is the second (or third, or fourth page), it’s less likely the search user will even see your article. You want your article to be ranking as close to the top of the first page of results as possible. In order to have a good SEO score your site’s content needs to feature keywords and relevant phrases. It must be optimized for easy navigation between pages. It also needs to be referenced via external links that drive traffic to your site. Incorporating all of t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Everything we know about HHS Protect, a secretive government project with Peter Thiel's Palantir that helps brief Trump's coronavirus task force

A secretive project at the US Department of Health and Human Services is working with technology companies to collect and analyze data related to the novel coronavirus .  Dubbed "HHS Protect," the effort tracks information from around the country about coronavirus case numbers, hospital capacity, and even supply chain issues.  HHS uses Palantir Technologies , a data firm cofounded by Peter Thiel, to distill that information for the White House coronavirus task force. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories . A secretive project at the US Department of Health and Human Services is working with technology companies to collect and analyze data related to the novel coronavirus.  Dubbed "HHS Protect," the effort includes roughly 2.5 billion pieces of data from healthcare providers, government officials, and labs around the country about coronavirus case numbers, hospital capacity, and even supply chain issues.  The goal is learn about the progress...
Post a Comment
Read more