Time up for Tik Tok?

Hannah Young

Tik Tok, one of the most popular applications for mobile devices has been involved in some controversy in recent days.

The social network created by the Chinese company Bytedance, which allows you to make short videos, has been accused of spying and stealing data from its users, among other things.

Tik Tok users have reported failures in this App, however it was reported that the failure was only a few minutes and the accounts begin to return to normal.

What are these controversies about?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the United States Department of Justice are investigating the accusations that the popular TikTok application failed to comply with a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting the privacy of children, since it could not having deleted videos and personal information of users 13 years of age or younger, as agreed, among other privacy violations.

On July 1, Anonymous’ Twitter account revealed that the app was created to carry out massive espionage by the Chinese government, prompting users to delete it from their phones immediately.

Delete Tik Tok now; if you know someone who is using it, explain that it is essentially a Chinese government-operated malware that is running a mass espionage operation,” says the Anonymous message.

Given this situation, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has stated that the United States Government is considering prohibiting the Chinese application, since, according to Pompeo, his private information could be “in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”

On July 6, Tik Tok confirmed that it will withdraw its platform from Google and Apple applications in Hong Kong, after the authorities in Beijing approved the new National Security Law last week.

In light of recent events, we have decided to halt operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong,” a spokesperson for the social network told Axios.

The app, the use of which has become widespread practically worldwide in recent months, has been repeatedly criticised by US politicians who accuse it of being a threat to national security due to its ties to China.

The situation in this case adds to the commercial tensions that for years have caused the veto to the Huawei company, which does not have, for example, access to install Google services and applications on their Android-based mobiles.

In Australia there is also a ban on the theft of personal data from its users.

On June 29 it was announced that the application in India would be blocked due to privacy problems that pose a threat to the sovereignty and security of India.

The Indian technology ministry said in a statement that it had reports that mobile apps “surreptitiously steal and transmit user data.”

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