Beijing is stepping up to the plate in the face of the United States' "unjustified attacks" on TikTok. Washington is asking the parent company of the application to separate from it and brandishes the threat of a ban on the social network throughout their territory. Following in the footsteps of several Western powers - the United States, Canada and the European Union - the United Kingdom in turn banned the app on government devices.
In this battle where Washington invokes national security reasons to attack the platform of short videos, very popular with young people, Beijing has challenged the world's leading power to "provide evidence" of its allegations. According to the Wall Street Journal and other American newspapers, the White House has issued an ultimatum: if TikTok remains in the fold of ByteDance, its parent company based in China, it will be banned in the United States.
Intense Beijing-Washington rivalry over new technologies
TikTok confirmed to AFP that the US government had indeed recommended the transfer of the app by its owner. Amid intense Beijing-Washington rivalry over trade and new technologies, many U.S. lawmakers and leaders say the app poses a threat to national security.
TikTok is accused by its critics of giving Chinese authorities access to user data from around the world, which the app strongly denies. "The United States should stop spreading false information on data security issues, stop unwarranted attacks [on TikTok] and provide an open, fair, fair and non-discriminatory business environment" for foreign companies, Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, said Thursday.
Washington "has so far not provided evidence that TikTok threatens the national security of the United States," he said in Beijing at a regular press conference.
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