Trump Adviser describes TikTok as ‘dangerous’ as President considers future of app
US President Donald Trump is set to announce his decision on the future of the popular app in America amid new claims it is used to send private information to the Chinese Communist Party.
Technology
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US President Donald Trump will make a decision on banning TikTok within 24 hours as White House Adviser Peter Navarro called the social app a “national security threat”.
Mr Navarro called Trump’s decision due to be announced on Monday local time a “good thing”.
According to the Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, TikTok has been sending American information including user-location back to its servers in China.
Mr Navarro claims that all personal information is “potentially going right back to the Chinese communist party, the Chinese military and the Chinese government.”
He continued: “They can use these social media apps to steal your personal information, your business information and also Judge, they use these social media apps to track you and surveil you and monitor your movements.”
Mr Navarro also stated that the app is a “national security threat” and that the President and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have been monitoring the app’s movement of information.
The Adviser asked viewers that if they are using TikTok “to get on the Trump train” and delete the app as it is “dangerous”.
Navarro also claimed that TikTok had hired several American lobbyists and placed a “puppet” CEO in charge of the company in order to change public opinion about the safety of the app.
“They’re going to make it sound like ‘oh can’t hurt you, this, that and the other thing.’ Don’t fall for this,” he said.
Mr Navarro cleared up a “vicious leak” that according to him was made public in a bid to put pressure on President Trump over his decision on banning the app.
“The other thing I should tell you about this is that is that there a vicious leak that went out trying to push the president into a corner and said that Microsoft was going to buy this.”
Mr Navarro said that the American people would need to be “careful” with this information because it is Microsoft that the “People’s Liberation Army and the Chinese government run on” and “Microsoft helped china build its great firewall that is sussed to surveil, monitor and censor and imprison sometimes the Chinese people”.
Mr Navarro warned viewers “people of America do not fall for whatever you hear from these lobbyists.”
If President Trump bans TikTok he will be following in the steps of India who banned TikTok along with 67 apps.
He made the announcement of banning the app while on Air Force One on Friday night as he returned from a trip to Florida.
“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” the president told reporters.
Mr Trump said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order to enforce the action.
“I have that authority,” he said aboard the presidential plane.
TikTok is a Chinese-owned video app that’s become popular among Americans in the last two years or so.
Users on the app create, watch, and engage with videos that range from fun dance trends to beekeepers rescuing honeybees.
It was the world’s second most downloaded app in the third quarter of 2019, with an estimated 176 million downloads.
TIKTOK STARS VENT FURY OVER US MOVE TO BAN CHINESE APP
TikTok stars with millions of followers vented their frustration after US President Donald Trump threatened to ban the Chinese-owned app.
Addison Rae, Dixie D’Amelio and Tre Clements were among some of the app’s big names who started bidding farewell to the popular app.
Addison Rae, a social media personality and dancer, who has accumulated 53 million followers on TikTok, voiced her reaction to the news on Twitter, simply saying, “bitter.”
bitter
— addison rae (@whoisaddison) August 1, 2020
Dixie D’Amelio, who has over 32 million followers on TikTok, shared a sad video of herself frowning without saying a word, with a caption that read “yeah.”
TikToker Tre Clements, who has 2.6 million followers on the video-sharing platform, shared a live video reacting to the news saying, “Trump is going to ban one of our only sources of happiness… This is a dictatorship not a democracy.”
But on Saturday, TikTok shared a video on Twitter telling it’s users: “We’re not going anywhere.”
“We’ve heard your outpouring of support and we want to say thank you. We’re not planning on going anywhere,” the company said in the video.
A message to the TikTok community. pic.twitter.com/UD3TR2HfEf
— TikTok (@tiktok_us) August 1, 2020
TikTok allows its users to create, watch and engage with videos that range from fun dance trends to beekeepers rescuing honeybees.
An estimated 80 million Americans are said to be using the platform.
As the president announced the ban on Friday, TikTok stars rushed to say their final goodbyes to the app where they found celebrity status, asking fans to follow them on Instagram or YouTube instead.
Skin care guru SkincarebyHyram, said goodbye to his followers in a TikTok video that has been seem by 1.8 million people. The skin care expert has 5.4 million followers on the platform.
“Goodbye y’all. You have all made my life incredible for the last five months. I’ll miss our memories, seeing your beautiful faces and all the laughs,” he said in the video.
“Remember: Keep that skin GLOWING.”
In the caption for the video he asked his followers to follow him on Instagram and YouTube
On Friday, the president officially said he plans to ban TikTok in the US.
“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” the president told reporters.
Trump said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order to enforce the action.
“I have that authority,” he said aboard the presidential plane.
But while it’s considered fun by users, US politicians have raised intelligence, national security and privacy concerns about the company’s ownership.
TikTok has denied allegations that it shares user data with the Chinese government.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES TIKTOK BAN OVER CHINESE SPYING FEARS
US President Donald Trump has announced he will bar fast-growing social media app TikTok from the United States as American authorities have raised concerns the service could be used by Chinese intelligence.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said: “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States.”
Trump did not say how exactly he would enact the ban, but an executive order was a possibility.
“Well, I have that authority. I can do it with an executive order or that,” he said.
It follows earlier media reports that said Trump was preparing an order requiring the fast-growing social media app TikTok to be divested from its Chinese parent firm on national security grounds.
The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported Trump was set to order the sale of TikTok’s US operations by China-based ByteDance amid concerns the service could be used for Chinese intelligence.
Other reports including one from Fox News said Microsoft was in talks to acquire TikTok, which could be valued in the tens of billions of dollars.
The move comes following a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) in the United States, which investigates deals affecting US national security.
Neither TikTok nor Microsoft had any immediate comment.
TikTok, which has become wildly popular, especially with young audiences viewing its short-form videos, has an estimated billion users worldwide.
Trump told reporters some action was pending on TikTok but offered no specifics. “We’re looking at TikTok. We may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things,” he said.
“There are a couple of options, but a lot of things are happening.” US officials and politicians in recent weeks have raised concerns about the potential for TikTok being used by China for nefarious purposes, but the company has denied any links to the Beijing government.
Queried by AFP, TikTok declined to comment on the reports, saying only: “We are confident in the long-term success of TikTok. Hundreds of millions of people come to TikTok for entertainment and connection, including our community of creators and artists who are building livelihoods from the platform.”
TikTok this week pledged a high level of transparency, including allowing reviews of its algorithms, to assure users and regulators.
“We are not political, we do not accept political advertising and have no agenda -- our only objective is to remain a vibrant, dynamic platform for everyone to enjoy,” TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer said in post this week.
“TikTok has become the latest target, but we are not the enemy.” The popularity of TikTok surged after ByteDance acquired US-based app Musical.ly in 2017 and merged it with its own video service.
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James Lewis, head of the technology policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he believes the security risk of using TikTok is “close to zero” but that ByteDance could face pressure from Beijing to engage in censorship.
“It looks like ByteDance may be getting squeezed by Beijing, so making them divest makes sense,” Lewis said. “They could start censoring stuff.” Lewis said US authorities under CFIUS have the power to unwind an acquisition previously approved and that a similar action was taken in 2019 with the dating app Grindr after it was bought by a Chinese firm
Instagram, FACEBOOK AND TIKTOK MAY NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN
On Thursday, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg was n warned he may be forced to sell Instagram in order to comply with antitrust laws during a dramatic congressional hearing.
The warning came as four of the world’s most powerful tech titans were grilled by a US House antitrust committee seeking to limit the overwhelming power their sprawling companies share.
It was the first such appearance by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who is the world’s richest man, while Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Apple’s Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook have previously testified in the Capitol.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said on Wednesday local time that although the Federal Trade Commission approved Facebook’s purchase of Instagram in 2012, it wasn’t a closed case.
“Mr Zuckerberg, mergers and acquisitions that buy off potential competitive threats violate the antitrust laws,” Mr Nadler said.
“In your own words, you purchased Instagram to neutralise a competitive threat. If this was an illegal merger at the time of the transaction, why shouldn’t Instagram now be broken off into a separate company?”
Mr Nadler said Mr Zuckerberg had previously described the photo-sharing platform as a competitor to Facebook, but Mr Zuckerberg said at the time he had not believed Instagram had the potential to grow into the company that it is today.
“At the time, almost no one thought of them as a general social network,” Mr Zuckerberg said.
But according to Mr Nadler: “the documents you provided tell a very disturbing story. And that story is that Facebook saw Instagram as a powerful threat that could siphon business away from Facebook.”
He said Facebook’s purchase of Instagram “should never have been permitted to happen, and it cannot happen again”.
Also at the hearing, web giant Google was accused of “stealing content from honest businesses” and Facebook was slammed for censoring conservative voices in a dramatic Congressional hearing.
The historic hearing, which brought together the chiefs of four of the five most valuable American companies worth $A7 trillion, focused on their growing power, anticompetitive behaviour and allegations that conservative social media posts are being censored.
It came as US President Donald Trump said he was considering banning Chinese-owned video-sharing platform Tik-Tok over security fears.
“We’re looking at TikTok. We’re thinking about making a decision,” Mr Trump said at the White House.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin added: “TikTok is under serious review and we’ll be making a recommendation to the president on it this week”.
The technology antitrust hearing occurred at a seminal time for the industry, one of few which is expected to not only weather the effects of the coronavirus but to increase its profit through people’s increased reliance on online activity.
GOOGLE ACCUSED OF ‘STEALING CONTENT’
It came as web giant Google was accused of “stealing content from honest businesses” and Facebook slammed for censoring conservative voices in a dramatic Congressional hearing.
Four of the world’s most powerful tech titans were being grilled by a US House antitrust committee seeking to limit the overwhelming power their sprawling companies share.
It was the first such appearance by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who is the world’s richest man, while Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Apple’s Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook have previously testified in the Capitol.
The historic hearing, which brought together the chiefs of four of the five most valuable American companies, focused on their growing power, anticompetitive behaviour and allegations that conservative social media posts are being censored.
It came at a seminal time for the industry, one of few which is expected to not only weather the effects of the coronavirus but to increase its profit through people’s increased reliance on online activity.
“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, these corporations already stood out as titans in our economy,” said Committee chair David Cicilline.
“In the wake of COVID-19...they’re likely to emerge stronger and more powerful than ever before.
“Any single action by one of these companies can affect hundreds of millions of us in profound and lasting ways.
“Simply put: They have too much power.
“Their ability to dictate terms, call the shots, up-end entire sectors, and inspire fear represent the powers of a private government. Our founders would not bow before a king. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.”
Mr Pichai offered vague answers when he was pressed on the predatory business practices of Google, which is owned by Alphabet.
Mr Cicilline said evidence showed that the search site “pursued a multipronged attack” and had become a “walled garden which keeps users on its sites.”
He cited the experience of the review site Yelp, which says Google harvested its restaurant reviews and threatened to “delist” the site when the smaller company complained.
Mr Cicilline said this meant Google said: “Let us steal your content or effectively disappear from the web”.
“Isn’t that uncompetitive?” he asked.
Mr Pichai responded: “We are really focused on giving our users what they want… We are really focused on improving our products.”
Google’s behaviour had been “economically catastrophic” for many small businesses, given that more than 60 per cent of searches conducted sent users to a Google product.
“As Google became the gateway to the internet it began to abuse its power,” said Mr Cicilline.
“Any business that wants to be found on the web must pay google a tax.”
Republican Jim Jordan said each of the four companies was responsible for ”trying to impact elections” and “censoring conservatives”.
“I’ll just cut to the chase, Big Tech’s out to get conservatives,” said Mr Jordan.
US President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of the big tech firms, which he says are too powerful, saying ahead of the hearing that he would act if Congress didn’t.
“If Congress doesn’t bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders,” he tweeted.
“In Washington, it has been ALL TALK and NO ACTION for years, and the people of our Country are sick and tired of it!”