Fake news, pornography and deadly challenges and the danger that the Chinese government can access the data of 1,000 million users around the world, the European Commission, the US and Canada Banned the app from being downloaded on government devices to safeguard national security.
The global action once morest the app of the Chinese firm ByteDance, which started in India in 2020, continues to gain traction in the Western world. Espionage, misinformation and deadly challenges are the main reasons that are leading great powers to ban its installation.
The story once morest the app began following deadly clashes on the border of both countries. From New Delhi they argued that the ban was a defense measure for their sovereignty.
That same year, Donald Trump threatened to ban the app following accusing it of spying for China, an idea that gained ground in Washington. Faced with this complaint, the Asian giant company was forced to admit that ByteDance employees had accessed the data of the Americans, but always denied having provided data to the Chinese authorities.
precautionary measure
The government of Canada announced that it will ban the TikTok app on the mobile devices it provides to its staffciting “an unacceptable level of risk” to privacy and security.
“On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods provide considerable access to content on the phone”Treasury Minister Mona Fortier said, adding in a statement that this decision was taken “as a precautionary measure.”
“We have no reason to believe at this time that any government information has been compromised,” Fortier concluded.
Law once morest TikTok
The pressure once morest the Chinese app increased in the United States with the advance in Congress of a bill that might lead to the ban of the popular application, a day following the White House vetoed it from the cell phones of officials.
According to a spokesperson for the app, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, TikTok considers this ban to be “political theater”and regrets that “this approach is replicated by other governments around the world.”
The Government of China criticized the order of the United States Administration to remove the TikTok social network application from all official phones: “How does the world’s main superpower have to be afraid of the favorite application of young people ?”, according to the news agency Europa Press.
The European exception
The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense differed from the position taken by the European Union, Canada and the White House and decided not to ban the TikTok social network on official mobile devices. Though he recommended to reduce your usage or uninstall the app.
“Since the product comes from an area we consider to be an unreliable supplier, we recommend not to install it, or if it is installed, just remove it“, said the head of Cybersecurity of the Lithuanian Defense Ministry, Antanas Aleknavicius.
billion users
According to the marketing agency We Are Social, TikTok is the sixth most used social platform in the world with more than 1 billion active users. In addition, according to the Wallaroo agency, a third of users are between 10 and 19 years old.
TikTok’s powerful algorithm and editing features have kept it ahead of the game, attracting an army of creators and influencers, as well as creating many of its own.
unreliable and dangerous
Specialists affirmed that the algorithm is not entirely consistent with the tastes of the users and, often, it is accused of leading them to posts that have nothing to do with the usual visualizations.
According to a recent report published in Forbes, TikTok employees and ByteDance manually increase the number of views on certain content to attract more followers.
In addition, the app is regularly accused of spreading misinformation, putting users in danger with dangerous “challenge” videos, and allowing pornography, even though it is supposed to prohibit nudity.
According to reports, several children have also died trying to replicate the so-called blackout challenge, which involves users holding their breath until they pass out. And around a fifth of videos on current affairs such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine turned out to be false or misleading, according to a study by the disinformation group NewsGuard.
nt / ds
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