Reason Why Greg Abbott Bans TikTok, Says The App Tried To Access User's Data
On Wednesday, Greg Abbott banned the popular app TikTok from all government-issued devices.
His decision was based on China's ownership of the app, which could give them access to sensitive information gathered from users' devices and their activity.
In a statement, Abbott noted that "TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users' devices…and offers this trove of potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government."
In order to protect Americans' data privacy and security, it's important to take steps such as banning China-owned applications like TikTok.
The U.S. federal officials and state members were anxious about how TikTok could allow the Chinese government to get access to top-secret data and sensitive information due to their Chinese ownership.
To that end, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rotika filed a lawsuit against TikTok on Wednesday over allegations that the Chinese government was intentionally displaying mature content to minors through its platform.
TikTok Negotiates With U.S. Government To Solve Their Security Concerns
In response, TikTok issued an official statement declaring they would not make any comments while the litigation was pending.
It remains to be seen how this lawsuit will be resolved, but it is certain that it will impact the continued operations of TikTok in America in some way.
They said that they respect the privacy and security of their users. They added, "We build youth well-being into our policies, limit features by age, empower parents with tools and resources, and continue to invest in new ways to enjoy content based on age-appropriateness or family comfort."
The statement further reads that they are currently persuading the U.S. government, and they are trying to satisfy all their concerns. The statement reads, "we have already made significant strides toward implementing those solutions."
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan made an announcement on Tuesday that the ban is similar to the prohibition which was imposed on Chinese technology makers like Huawei and ZTE.
TikTok gave a statement to ABC News after Hogan's ban that they believe these concerns are arousing due to the misleading information about their company. They said they were confident that they would settle all concerns in the meeting.
They added, "We are disappointed that many state agencies, offices, and universities will no longer be able to use TikTok to build communities and connect with constituents."
The U.S. government was called by Federal Communications Commission last year to ban these kinds of social media platforms.
According to sources, The Biden administration and TikTok wrote an agreement to discuss some state officials' national security concerns. In the address, it was discussed that there were some negotiations performed to remove the ban.
TikTok shared a statement in which they said that they have U.S. users and, due to the Chinese government's request, they haven't removed the U.S. post from their platform.
There were stories circulating on the internet about possible security threats to U.S. users' data.
According to sources, TikTok once gained access to U.S. users' numbers and information. It was found that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, aimed to access users' information by using the app.
In 2020, Trump's administration tried to ban TikTok. He offered ByteDance to sell their app to a U.S. company. But, ByteDance didn't sell the app.
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