Donald Trump Conducting Survey Tiktok Should Be Banned, Pakistan Give Chinese App Last Warning

Last weekend, the re-election campaign of Donald Trump was seen running Facebook ads to inform users that TikTok is spying on people’s data. The advertisement also links to a survey if the USA should ban the app, along with the requirements of respondents’ names and contacts.

TikTok is a popular video app by the Chinese technology company ByteDance. It has been claimed by many sources to have spied on users’ data. A lot of sensitive content that is streamed on this app is not sponsored, causing huge impacts on the young generations.

In the ads run by Donald Trump, it says “TikTok is spying on you” and this app was caught red-handed while trying to copy users’ phone clipboard even when they are not using the app. In fact, the illegal action of TikTok was discovered when Apple showcased its new security features. The iOS system has noticed the phone owner that TikTok was copying data on clipboards. Clipboards are where our phones store data when copying and pasting in different apps.

Earlier in July, the Secretary of the US Mike Pompeo also affirmed that this government was considering a ban on Chinese social media apps, among which is the popular video-sharing platform TikTok.

It’s reasonable why TikTok is being targeted after ZTE and Huawei. This is a well-known app by Chinese company and the US government constantly shows its concern over security threats from China-linked business.

Meanwhile, in Australia, there are also emerging calls to ban this application. Though it has denied the provision of data to the Chinese government, TikTok can’t gain trust back from Australian users and worldwide residents in general. With an enormous amount of users’ information that TikTok has collected, from phone numbers to facial recognition, it can be a serious threat to any country if not governed strictly.

Yesterday, Pakistan’s telecommunications regulator also gave TikTok its last warning over the explicit content on the platform. Before this, Bigo Live, a Singaporean-based streaming app was already banned in this country for the same reason.

Pakistan authorities sent notices to TikTok, requiring it to “put in place a comprehensive mechanism to control obscenity, vulgarity and immorality” on this social media app.

Surprisingly, while a lot of violent or sensitive content is available on TikTok, this app used to block LGBT content such as two lesbians holding hands with each other. Clearly, this Chinese app is shaping an inappropriate viewpoint for its mostly young users.

Luckily, the Indian government has been forward-looking when giving a ban on many Chinese apps to avoid these dangerous influences.

>>> Related post: Peeing Your Pants? It's Such A Kind Of Stupid Challenge On TikTok