New Zealand has decided to ban the use of the Chinese social networking app TikTok on official devices made available to parliamentarians, officials said on Friday, following similar measures in other countries.
The ban will cover all devices with access to the New Zealand parliament’s internet network, Rafael González-Montero, a parliamentary official, told the France-Press news agency.
The ban will take effect on March 31.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the US Foreign Investment Committee, part of the Treasury Department, threatened to ban the app from the US market unless its owners, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., sell assumption.
“If the goal is to protect national security, divestment does not solve the problem: a change of ownership would not impose new restrictions on data flows or access,” reacted Maureen Shanahan, a spokesperson for TikTok.
On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin accused the United States of spreading disinformation, saying that Washington has not provided any evidence that TikTok poses a threat to its national security.
In late February, the White House gave federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from all government devices. Some agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and the State Department, already had restrictions.
The Belgian federal government also decided last week to ban the use of TikTok on its employees’ official devices, after Canada and the European Commission made similar decisions.
TikTok is used by two-thirds of US teens, but there are growing concerns that Beijing could gain control of US user data and that the app could serve to spread pro-TikTok propaganda. Beijing.
China bans most foreign social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok itself, which is present in the country through the national version, called Douyin.
Source: TSF
