China's video-sharing app Tiktok, which has been banned in India and America, has said that it does not share any kind of data with the Chinese government. A top Tiktok official said this during the hearing in front of US lawmakers. Tiktok is banned in America. Last year, the Donald Trump government accused Tiktok of giving the data of the American people to the government and the army at the behest of the Chinese government.
Tiktok officer Michael Beckerman joined the US Congress via video conferencing. He is the head of the company in America. In response to the tough questions of the MPs, this officer said – We keep the data of Americans safe. The allegation that the data of the American people is shared with the Chinese government or any other department is false. TikTok's parent company is Bytedance and its headquarter is in Beijing. Snapchat and YouTube were also mentioned during the hearing.
In response to a question from Republican Senator Ted Cruz, Beckerman said – We have nothing to do with Bytedance Technology. We believe that the Chinese government has a stake in Bytedance. A member of its board is also a Chinese government official, but we have nothing to do with Bytedance.
Beckerman made it clear that he is ready to share the algorithm of his app with US agencies. We don't mind if they want an independent agency to investigate. The Biden administration has announced to change Trump's decision to ban Tiktok, but before that, it has also made it clear that all foreign apps will be reviewed.
According to the 'New York Times, in 2019, Trump started cracking down on Chinese companies. He ordered American companies not to use equipment made abroad. It is believed that Biden may have just stayed in Trump's order, but very soon he will take a more strict decision. One reason for this is also the growing opposition to China in America.
So far it is not clear what action the administration will take if an app is found to be dangerous for the security of the country. It is also not clear whether Chinese apps will restart in the US as soon as Trump's order is revoked, and if so, for how long. Till now these apps have not been started.
