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China has criticised the US government for “overreacting” after federal employees were ordered to uninstall the TikTok app from government-issued devices.
Recently, Canada joined the tide of states and regions in the US, the EU, and other countries that have banned government employees’ use of the TikTok app.
Suppose the US and Canadian governments are concerned about the threats of the Chinese-made app. In that case, Australia should be “looking at it very seriously as well,” according to Susan McLean, a cyber safety specialist from Australia.
“I think that if anyone actually knew the data that was being collated on them when they used it, how it was being used, and the fact that it can be fed back to the Chinese Communist Party, many people would simply walk away – but there is not a great understanding of that,” she said.
Meanwhile, civil liberties advocates are vociferously opposing a bill that would streamline the process to ban TikTok from the US and crack down on other China-related economic activity scheduled for a vote today in a powerful US House committee. They claim the proposal is unconstitutionally broad and threatens various online speech.
Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the measure submitted on March 24 and fast-tracked by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul “would empower the Biden administration to impose a nationwide TikTok ban.”
TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, are mentioned explicitly in the bill’s text. Suppose the administration determines that the companies may have knowingly transferred user data to “any foreign person” working for or influenced by the Chinese government. In that case, Joe Biden must impose penalties against them, up to and possibly including a ban.
Sanctions would also be imposed if the Biden administration discovered that the companies assisted the Chinese government in hacking, censorship, surveillance, and intelligence gathering.
As the international community grapples with this issue, one thing is sure: privacy and data security must remain a top priority for different governments and organisations worldwide.
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