Secretary of State Pompeo: "The popular social network collects information from users and passes it on to the Communist Party in China" • India has already banned the use of the applet
The United States is considering banning the operation of social media networks of Chinese companies, such as Tik Tuk - he said this morning (Tuesday), Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. This is for fear of spying on the Chinese government, by gathering information on users who install the popular social network app (app). Pompeo, who said this in an interview with Fox News, added: "We are seriously considering it."
From: Check Point's YouTube channel
Asked about the issue, Pompeo said: "Regarding the Chinese widgets on people's cell phones, I can assure you that the United States will make this decision as well. This is something we are currently considering." Pompeo emphasized: "People should only download such a widget to their devices if they want their private information to be transmitted to the Communist Party in China."
If the US will take this step, it is a fatal financial blow for the Chinese company based in Beijing ByteDance - Tick Tock operator. However, after India recently banned the applet field operations, after an incident in the border with China.
Tick Tock has been accused by US politicians Many in the "threat to national security" because of its ties with the Chinese government say they could be forced to support and cooperate in gathering intelligence for the Chinese Communist Party.
Tic Toc in response claims to operate separately from ByteDance. According to a company spokeswoman, its data centers are all located outside of China, and none are subject to Chinese law. According to the company, US user data is stored on a server farm in the United States, with a backup in Singapore. "The fears of a violation of U.S. national security are unfounded," the company spokesman said.
Tik Tuk has become popular in the United States and other Western countries, and is in fact the first Chinese social media platform to gain large numbers of users from outside China. In the first three months of 2020, the widget has downloaded 315 million people worldwide - more than any other widget in history during a quarter.
Tick Tuk currently has about 635 million users. Although most of the videos uploaded in the applet are still from China, much of the advertising revenue estimated at $ 3.7 billion a year comes from outside China. The removal of the widget from the widget stores in India has caused a serious blow to the company, which has built on the huge market of hundreds of millions of users in India, and planned to open a development center employing 2,000 people in the subcontinent.
Tick tuk is also very popular in Israel, especially among teenagers, along with other Chinese widgets that are claimed to collect user information, such as the FaceApp graphic widget.
