Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State on Monday said that the United States is “certainly looking at” banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok.
“I don’t want to get out in front of the President (Donald Trump), but it’s something we’re looking at,” Mike Pompeo said in an interview.
India has banned 59 apps which have some or the other Chinese links. The decision of this ban came after government of India said that these apps were threat to the national security of the country for engaging in activities “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defence of India, security of state and public order”.
The ban comes after the ongoing tension between the two nations. This tension began after the violent face-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA troops at the border. Along the Line of Action Control of Galwan valley near the Eastern Ladakh Chinese Troops and Indian soldiers got in to a violent face-off when the Chinese troops did not summon to their side of the de-escalation process. The violent face-off between the two nations killed 20 Indian soldiers. This violent face-off happened on the night of 15th June, 2020. Thus began the Indo-China clash. This is the first time in the last 4 decades a clash happened between Indian and China after the incident in Arunachal Pradesh in 1970’s. The clash had lead to a huge boycott movement between the citizens of India and Indians around the world. Whether it Canada, United States of America or any other country Indians are not taking the heat from China.
The Boycott China movement took a leap of step on last Monday when the government of India banned 59 Apps from India which have a certain Chinese link to it.
All the 59 apps have now been removed from Apple Inc and Google LLC’s app stores from the Indian market.
This movement is garnering a lot of support from other countries who have similar issues with the Chinese Communist Party. One such country is the United States. People are applauding the Indian government’s move and some prominent lawmakers in the United States are urging the American government to follow the same road as India, especially with TikTok who has had many controversies of stealing and storing the data outside the borders of the country. TikTok has the most number of United States users than any other Chinese app.
These prominent lawmakers include Republican Senator John Cornyn, Repblican Congressman Rick Crawford, US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo among several others.
Republican Senator John Cornyn mentioned the news of India banning 59 apps and captions it as follows“India bans TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps in the wake of deadly clash,”
Republican Congressman Rick Crawford is very much in support with banning TikTok in the country and says “TikTok must go and it should have been gone yesterday.”
US National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien also alleged that the Chinese government is using TikTok for its own purposes which may or may not be a threat t national security in the United States.
“On TikTok, a Chinese-owned social media platform with over 40 million American users, probably a lot of your kids, and younger colleagues, accounts criticising the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and Beijing’s policies are routinely removed or deleted,” O’Brien had said in his public remarks.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States is ‘certainly looking’ to ban Chinese social media apps, including Tiktok. “I don’t want to get out in front of the President (Donald Trump), but it’s something we’re looking at,” Pompeo said.
The US has expressed several concerns in the pastover TikTok’s handling of user data. The concerns were probably because of certain Chinese laws which required Chinese based companies to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party regarding the date of its users and much more.
Saying the exact same reasons the Indian Ministry of Information and Technology banned 59 China based apps including Tiktok, Wechat, Shareit, UC Browser etc last week.
After the ban TikTok who had 200 million users from India has distanced itself from its Chinese roots to not lose business which is more than 6 billion dollars. TikTok wants to appeal to global audience and is emphasizing on its Independence from China and Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok India is complying with the rules of the government and has also decided and announced its withdrawal from the Hong Kong market after China established a new national security law for Hong Kong.
By Deepika Agarwal
