United States secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that Trump’s administration is considering banning Chinese social media apps in the U.S at top of the list, is the controversial Chinese short video sharing app TikTok.
“I don’t want to get out in front of the President Donald Trump, but it’s something we’re certainly looking at,” said Pompeo during a TV interview with Fox News.
Since its inception, U.S legislators have expressed their dissatisfaction with TikTok considering how the app handles private data of users further the lawmakers claim Chinese regulations require Chinese companies to help and cooperate with intelligence agency controlled by Chinese Communist Party.
Unfortunately, Tiktok is not available in China, additionally the parent company of the app ByteDance claims its data is stored outside China but there exists a privacy policy granting permission to share any information with the Chinese government.
Following a recent border clash between China and India, the app was banned in India along with other 58 Chinese apps.
These remarks by Pompeo also come at a time when China and the United States are under increased tensions after trade war between the two world’s largest economies was renewed after China’s parliament passed a controversial national security law concerning the city of Hong Kong.
