Washington (EFE).- The Government of the United States affirmed this Tuesday that it is “very concerned” about the repercussions that the short video platform TikTok, whose parent company is the Chinese company ByteDance, may have for its security.
The US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, expressed these concerns during his appearance before the country’s Senate judiciary committee, where Democratic lawmaker Richard Blumenthal asked him about that application.
“Are you concerned about the security of TikTok user data and the independence of TikTok from the Chinese government?” Blumenthal said, to which Mayorkas replied that he has “tremendous concern” about many aspects of “the aggression of China” to the US and other democracies around the world.
Mayorkas refused to provide details on the status of the legal measures that are being adopted against that video platform in the US and limited himself to insisting that his government is “very concerned about the security implications of TikTok.”
“There is pending litigation, we are very focused on the threat that TikTok poses, and you have my assurances that we are addressing that with tremendous vigilance,” said the head of Homeland Security.
The possible ban on TikTok
China assured this Tuesday that the “unfounded repression” of the US on Tiktok “seriously violates the principles of the market economy and fair competition” and constitutes “an abuse of state power.”
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, recently described Tiktok as “a threat” and the Administration of US President Joe Biden has threatened ByteDance with banning the social network if it does not sell its shares in the application, as it has transpired.
During an appearance before the Energy and Commerce committee of the House of Representatives, the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, warned last Thursday that imposing a veto on that platform in the country would harm the economy and freedom of expression and recalled that in the US there are around 150 million users.
The US entry, “very concerned” about the repercussions for its security of TikTok, was first published in EFE Noticias.