Introduction

On Friday, it was announced that the New Zealand parliament will ban the China-owned app TikTok from all government devices due to cybersecurity concerns, joining the efforts of governments in Europe and the United States to limit access to the app over security and privacy worries.

• TikTok will be disabled from all devices connected to the New Zealand parliament network at the request of cybersecurity experts, according to a Friday announcement. Similar bans have been imposed by New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and military.

• All gadgets used by British government employees will not be able to access TikTok, according to Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden, who also announced on Thursday that the devices will only be allowed to access third-party applications that have been pre-approved.

• The elected European Parliament announced a similar ban after a review by cybersecurity officials a week after the European Commission—the executive branch of the European Union—banned TikTok from the phones of its employees, noting that the ban was implemented to guard against cybersecurity threats.

• Since Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said that the corporation is "required to assist with Chinese intelligence agencies," the National Security Council of Belgium last week barred TikTok from being used on government employees' work phones.

• In response to national security worries, Canada also last month banned TikTok on devices provided by the government, though Mona Fortier, the president of the Canadian Treasury Board, claimed there was no proof that any data belonging to the government had been accessed, according to Reuters.

• After similar actions taken by numerous state governments, American lawmakers enacted a ban on TikTok on federal devices in December. U.S. agencies now have until March 20 to delete the app from all government-issued devices.

Contra

Michelle Donelan, the U.K.'s Secretary of State for Technology, said last month that the government would not stop people from using TikTok on government devices. She said that not using the app would be a "personal choice."

The fact That Is Strange

In June 2020, India was the first country to ban TikTok and other apps made by Chinese companies. According to the New York Times, the Indian government said that the apps "stole and secretly sent user data" outside of India.

The Big Picture

TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, and there have been more and more calls to ban it in recent months. This is because people are worried that the Chinese government could get into user data through the app. 

• Whistleblowers from both companies told Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and the Washington Post that TikTok employees can easily switch between U.S. and Chinese data with limited approvals. TikTok has denied this claim. 

• The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) has been looking into TikTok for years, even though some lawmakers have asked the agency to end its investigation. 

• The agency recently said that the app would be banned in the U.S. if TikTok's shareholders in China didn't sell their shares in the company.

leading critic

Forcing ByteDance to sell off its assets, according to TikTok, "doesn't fix the problem," and a "change in ownership would not impose any additional limits on data flows or access," Forbes said. 

In order to address concerns about data privacy, TikTok said it will implement a new policy known as "Project Texas" in the U.S. and "Project Clover" in Europe, which would oblige the firm to keep user data locally and forbid it from leaving either region.

Also Read: TikTok will be banned on devices used by the government by US politicians.

Things to Look Out For

Bipartisan legislation that would enable the Commerce Department to outlaw foreign technology that puts Americans at "undue or intolerable danger" has been submitted by lawmakers in the United States.

 TikTok was mentioned by senators as a possible danger even though it is not specifically included in the law.