President Donald Trump has revealed that the United States is considering prohibiting Chinese social media app TikTok amid fears China could use it to spy on Americans.
Concerns have been raised by US officials about the Chinese government poaching private and personal data from Americans’ cell phones through smartphone applications like TikTok.
While speaking to reporters in the South Lawn before leaving White House for a day trip to Texas, Trump said: “We’re looking at TikTok, we’re thinking about making a decision”.
Also, Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin said the app is under appraisal by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. He also told reporters he would present a recommendation on how best to handle the Chinese-based app to Donald Trump very soon.
This came days after Joe Biden’s campaign prohibited staffers from using the Chinese video-sharing app owing to security and privacy concerns.
In a recent memo, Biden’s general counsel, Dana Remus, direced staff members to uninstall TikTok from their personal and work phones, and to “refrain from downloading and using TikTok”.
India recently banned 47 additional Chinese apps weeks after banning TikTok and 58 others over security and privacy concerns.
