The popularity of the Chinese social media platform Tiktok is increasingly portrayed as a problem. The concern is that China can get hold of users’ data. Now several countries have decided to ban government employees from using the app. The reason? Security. In the US, Canada and Denmark, Tiktok has been banned for government employees, the EU Parliament has banned the app for its employees, and in Sweden the staff of the government office was already asked last autumn to remove the Chinese app from their work phones. The threat is based on the large reach of the application and the owner, Chinese Bytedance. It has long been speculated whether Tiktok can monitor users’ data or profit from it. But cyber security expert Marcus Murray sees an additional threat: – If you think that the intelligence service in China would be tasked by the government to map all citizens in the Western world and try to influence them. And maybe have the ability to monitor specific individuals. Then Tiktok would be the dream. But what is the difference between Tiktok and other popular social media? – As a government and a country, there is a geopolitical attitude and we have more trust in the United States than China. So we can live with people watching us and collecting information in Facebook, but get more worried when China does it, says Marcus Murray. The spy balloon ignites the debate “The threat everyone is talking about today is Tiktok,” said the Democratic senator when he presented the new bill against Tiktok. A proposal that would allow Biden to ban the app. The discussion has really heated up in the country after the latest events, which is something that Washington correspondent Cecilia Khavar notices: – There is an increasingly intense discussion here right now and it has something to do with the spy balloon over the USA. It has escalated the discussion. The FBI warns of the risks, but also members of Congress who highlight the risks that the Chinese regime can obtain personal data and be exposed to influence campaigns. Swedish government ducks ban Despite other countries’ tough stance against the app, the Swedish government does not want to single out Tiktok specifically. – The issue is broader than a single app, says Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M), Minister for Civil Defence, to TT. – Which apps are allowed or not allowed on, for example, service phones, is a consequence of how sensitive information is handled. What governs is the security protection legislation, which requires that information be handled in certain ways, he says. In November, government office staff were asked to delete the app. But several central authorities allow their employees to have Tiktok. Among other things, authorities with missions within total defence, according to a survey that TV4 Nyheterna did at the end of last year.
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