Srinagar: Days after India banned 59 Chinese social media applications in the country, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that United States is “certainly looking” at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok in US.
“I don’t want to get out in front of the President (Donald Trump), but it’s something we’re looking at,” Pompeo told an American based news channel Fox News on Monday.
The comments came in wake of China’s actions in Hong Kong and a nearly two-year trade war, increasing US-China tensions over the handling of coronavirus outbreak.
Recently two American aircraft carriers sailed to the South China Sea, when China was conducting military exercises in the contested waterway.
Raising national security concerns over TikTok’s handling of user data, US lawmakers have said that they were worried about Chinese laws requiring domestic companies “to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.”
A day earlier, Reuters- an international news organization, reported that social media application TikTok would exit the Hong Kong market within days, deciding to do so after China’s establishment of a sweeping new national security law for the semi-autonomous city.
Earlier in this week, government of India banned 59 Chinese mobile applications, including top social media platforms such as TikTok, Helo and WeChat, to “counter the threat posed by these applications to the country’s sovereignty and security.”
In a press statement, government on Monday said that applications are engaged in activities like “prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.” It also cited complaints about data on Indian users being transferred abroad without authorization.
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