The United States government holds some concerns about Chinese apps like TikTok. Speaking to CBS News, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, "We are taking this issue very seriously. We are looking into it. We respect Chinese apps on people's phones." But in the United States, only the right apps will be given space.

US Congress concerned about private information leakage through TikTok

In recent months, members of the US Congress have raised concerns about TikTok, alleging that app users could leak data to the Chinese government. Asked if he would advise American citizens to use TikTok, Mike Pompeo said, "only if they want to hand over their private information to the Chinese government."

Reacting to the US Secretary of State's statement, a spokesman for TikTok said: "TikTok is headed by a US CEO and has hundreds of safety, security, product, and public policy employees and key officials in the United States." They added, "We have no priorities more important than consumer protection and the security of the app experience.

We do not provide any user data to the Chinese government, nor have we been told [to do so]."

Last week, some popular Chinese apps, including TikTok, such as VChat, were banned in India. The Indian government justified the ban on these apps by defending security risks and protecting user data.

On the other hand, the trade war between the United States and China has been going on for a long time and any decision to ban other Chinese apps, including TikTok, might only make the situation worse.

TikTok has already been banned by several US agencies such as the US Navy last year.

Why millions of Indian citizens mobilize against TikTok?

TikTok is the most popular social media app in the world, but surprisingly, it is rating on the Google Play Store recently only showed a one-star rating.

However, since then, it improved it's rating to 1.5 stars. It seems it dropped from a four to 5-star rating over an incident in India. Some people involved in the heated debate led to a demand for a ban on TikTok which became a top trend on Twitter India.

The controversy erupted when a video by Carry Minati, a young man popular on YouTube in India, was removed from a video-sharing site in which he slammed a TikTok star.

Business Insider carried the story in May this year. The video was deleted after it had more than 70 million views and was followed by a tic-tac-toe campaign on Twitter. It resulted in millions of negative reviews against the social media app on the Google Play Store.

TikTok deleted video of a well-known star due to policy violation

On the other hand, Tik Tok deleted a video of well-known star Faisal Siddiqui from its app, calling it a violation of policy, which was complained about in a tweet by Rekha Sharma, chairman of India's National Commission for Women.

Faisal Siddiqui had more than 12 million followers, most of whom vented their anger on Twitter and also started giving one-star ratings to TikTok on Google Play Store.

"According to policy, we cannot allow content that poses a threat to others, promotes bodily harm, or makes violence against women acceptable," TikTok said. "The user was questioned, he violated the policy on which the content was deleted and the account was suspended, and we are working with law enforcement agencies in this regard."

In another statement, the company said, "Promoting a safe and positive environment is our top priority. Our policies are clear and violations will not be tolerated. Over the past few days, we have Numerous content that has been removed, and accounts have been suspended."
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED