Blog
Vaibhav Srivastava 
7 July 2020After getting banned from India due to security threats, it seems that the dark clouds are not going to fade anytime soon for the Chinese video-sharing social networking service, TikTok. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday said that the US government is certainly looking at banning TikTok and other Chinese apps from the country.
In an interview with a popular news channel, Pompeo said, “With respect to Chinese apps on people’s cell phones, I can assure you the United States will get this one right too. I don’t want to get out in front of the President (Donald Trump), but it’s something we’re looking at.”
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Not just India and the US, but countries like Australia are looking at taking similar measures.
Some of the top diplomats in Washington have even said that Americans should download the apps only if they want to share their private information with the Chinese Communist Party.
On the other side, the spokesperson in TikTok has another story to tell. In an email, he said that TikTok is led by an American CEO, with hundreds of employees and key leaders across safety, security, product, and public policy here in the US. We have no higher priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for our users. We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked.
However, Pompeo’s remarks come at a time when the diplomatic tension between the two nations is an all-time high which could be seen in several areas, including trade, technology and security. TikTok has been criticised by the numerous US politicians who claim it as a threat to national security. They allege that TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based startup is compelled to cooperate and support the intelligence unit that is fully administered by the Chinese Communist Party.
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TikTok has previously said that it operates independently from ByteDance and has its data centres outside of China. The data of its users in the US is stored in the US itself and its backup is stored safely in Singapore.
