Credit: https://www.zdnet.com/article/despite-brutal-border-clash-between-india-and-china-tech-bonds-will-be-very-hard-to-break/
Following Monday’s announcement by the Indian government banning 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, TikTok has issued a statement expressing its readiness to comply with the directive. In the statement, which was released via its Twitter page a while ago, the popular app known for viral videos denied sharing user information with China.
A part of the statement reads:
“The Government of India has issued an interim order for the blocking of 59 apps, including TikTok and we are in the process of complying with it. We have been invited to meet with concerned government stakeholders for an opportunity to respond and submit clarifications.”
Continuing, the company denies any wrongdoings:
“TikTok continues to comply with all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and has not shared any information of our users in India with any foreign government, including the Chinese Government.”
— TikTok India (@TikTok_IN) June 30, 2020
On Monday India announced that TikTok and 58 other apps will no longer be allowed to work in the country. The country announced this in a press release; a move unprecedented in the history of what now looks like a cold war between India and China.
In the press release, India’s Ministry of Information Technology said the apps “are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.”
TikTok is used by over 200 million people in India, and could be the biggest loser in this latest move by the India government. TechCrunch, however, reports that all 59 banned apps are still available for download in the country on both Google Play and the Apple App Store.
TikTok, which perhaps seems to be the biggest losers in all of these, suffered a major blow last February when Transportation Security Administration told its employees to stop using the app. This came weeks after the army banned the use of TikTok on government owned phones. TSA told users to stop using the Chinese-owned app to create social media posts for the agency.
Considering the popularity of the app among teens in the US, the government launched a national security review. This prompted New York Senator Chuck Schumer to send a letter to TSA Administrator David Pekoske over the weekend.
In a statement per CBS News on Sunday, the TSA said “small number of TSA employees have previously used TikTok on their personal devices to create videos for use in TSA’s social media outreach, but that practice has since been discontinued.”
Schumer in his letter said experts in national security have expressed fears about how TikTok handles and collects data and personal information, locations and other content. Also in the letter, he noted that Chinese laws compels companies to cooperate with China’s government and intelligence collection.
