Washington [US], March 17 (ANI): Chinese-owned video hosting service TikTok can threaten America’s safety and its national security, the White House said on Thursday (Local Time). Responding to a media query over the TikTok ban during a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We have expressed concerns over China’s potential use of software platforms that could endanger or threaten America’s safety and national security so that is the President concerned that is why we have called on Congress to take action.”
“We have seen a bipartisan piece of legislation that you know and have been covering, which is the President’s main priority. I am sure when it comes to their safety when it comes to their security and when it comes to our national security, those things are protected and so that has been the President’s focus over the last couple of years,” she added.
In the press briefing, the White House press secretary further stated that Sophia, who is reviewing this particular software and the TikTok app, supports the bipartisan legislation mentioned earlier. “Look the bottom line is that when it comes to potential threats to our national security, the safety of Americans, privacy, we are going to speak out and we are going to be very clear about that and the Prez has been last 2 years and so we are asking Congress to act, to move forward with this bipartisan legislation that was the strict action that we just mentioned and we are going to continue to do so,” Pierre said.
This statement from the White House Press Secretary came after the group of Senators introduced the “Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology” (RESTRICT) Act.
The Act would give new powers to the US government to take action against technologies posing risk to the country. The group of Senators led by senators Mark Warner and John Thune introduced the Bill that seeks to address the ongoing threat posed by technology from foreign adversaries by empowering the US Department of Commerce to review, prevent, and mitigate information communications and technology transactions that pose risk to national security like TikTok.
US Senator John Thune said the Congress needs to stop taking a “piecemeal approach” with respect to technology from “adversarial nations that pose national security risks”. “Our country needs a process in place to address these risks, which is why I’m pleased to work with Senator Warner to establish a holistic, methodical approach to address the threats posed by technology platforms like TikTok from foreign adversaries,” Thune said in a statement. “This bipartisan legislation would take a necessary step to ensure consumers’ information and our communications technology infrastructure is secure,” he added. (ANI)
“Sale won’t resolve US security concerns over TikTok”: App’s CEO
Washington [US], March 17 (ANI): Amid the war of words between TikTok and the US, the China-owned video-sharing platform’s CEO said the sale would not resolve America’s national-security concerns over the app, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew, in an interview, said divesting the company from its Chinese owners–a move the US is now demanding–doesn’t offer any more protection than a multibillion-dollar plan the company has already proposed.
This statement came after the US threatened to ban TikTok from the country unless the app’s Chinese owners agree to spin off their share of the social media platform, TikTok acknowledged Wednesday evening. TikTok proposed to hire an American partner, Oracle Corp., to store American users’ data and safeguard against any Chinese influence over what videos Americans view on the app, according to WSJ.
“I do welcome feedback on what other risk we are talking about that is not addressed by this,” he said from TikTok‘s WeWork offices in Washington. “So far I haven’t heard anything that cannot actually be solved by this,” he added.
Meanwhile, China on Thursday said the United States was “unreasonably suppressing” TikTok and spreading “false information” about data security. “The US side has so far failed to produce evidence that Tik Tok threatens US national security,” China‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in a regular press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
TikTok has been negotiating with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — a group composed of the Departments of Treasury, Justice, Homeland Security, Defense and Commerce, among others — for more than two years on a deal that might allow the app to continue operating in the US market in the face of security and privacy concerns, reported CNN.
US officials have raised fears that the Chinese government could use its national security laws to pressure TikTok or its Chinese parent ByteDance into handing over the personal information of TikTok‘s US users, which might then benefit Chinese intelligence activities or influence campaigns.
TikTok has become the latest reason flashpoints in a much wider US–China conflict that has extended beyond geopolitics to issues such as trade and technology, reported WSJ. The standoff on the same issues led the Trump administration to effectively ban Chinese telecom-equipment company Huawei Technologies Co. from the US and then lobby allies to ditch it, too.
In both cases, politicians have focused on the prospect that the companies could be compelled to help Chinese authorities spy or interfere with communications, according to the American interpretation of Chinese law. In the case of TikTok, U.S. politicians have a more complicated calculus: The app is used by some 100 million Americans, risking political fallout if Washington made good on its threat to ban it, as per a WSJ report. (ANI)
