China’s TikTok Vows Legal and PR Campaign Against Trump Ban
The South China Morning Post: TikTok parent company “ByteDance … preparing to escalate its legal and public relations battle against US President Donald Trump’s executive order.”
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is planning to mount a legal and public relations offensive against U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban on China-owned social media app. “ByteDance, the Chinese owner of short video hit TikTok, is preparing to escalate its legal and public relations battle against US President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban the app in the United States” Hong Kong based South China Morning Post revealed Monday.
Last week, President Trump issued two executive orders seeking to ban Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat on grounds of national security. The presidential order requires these China-based apps to find a new buyers in 45 days or shut down their U.S. operation. The move came after U.S. officials repeatedly warned public against using TikTok and other Chinese apps citing privacy and security concerns.
The Beijing-headquartered video sharing app is close to filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration, media reports said. “TikTok is planning to sue the Trump administration, challenging the president’s executive order banning the service from the United States,” the public broadcaster NPR reported on Saturday.
The Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reported TikTok’s strategy to fight the ban:
ByteDance, the Chinese owner of short video hit TikTok, is preparing to escalate its legal and public relations battle against US President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban the app in the United States unless it is sold, according to two people familiar with the situation. (…)
“Yiming’s dream is to create a global business,” the person said, referring to Zhang Yiming, the 37-year-old founder of ByteDance. “But if he is set to lose TikTok in the US market either by selling it to a potential competitor or a forced exit, he will have nothing else to lose. Of course he will try every possible way to fight back.”
Meanwhile, the second person familiar with the situation said the Beijing-based company is preparing to harden its legal opposition to US demands, reflecting frustration with previous efforts to accommodate US concerns and public opinion in China which wants it to fight back.
Chinese cyber espionage is a growing threat the U.S. defense and economic sectors. Communist China is using cyber espionage to carry out “one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history,” FBI Director Christopher Wray warned last month. “The stakes could not be higher, and the potential economic harm to American businesses and the economy as a whole almost defies calculation.”
Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Apple and Google app stores to remove “untrusted” Chinese apps. The call was part of the Trump administration’s ‘clean network’ campaign which initially focused on Chinese state-linked telecom companies, mainly Hauwei and ZTE, penetrating U.S. internet and mobile networks.
Besides the U.S., other countries have moved to ban Chinese apps on grounds of national security. Intelligence agencies in the UK and Australia have issued warnings and bans against China-linked apps snooping on military personnel, lawmakers and ordinary citizens. India banned TikTok, WeChat and 57 other Chinese apps as early as June. With 120 million active users, India was the biggest market for the short video sharing apps. New Delhi called TikTok and other Chines apps “malicious” tools which “harm India’s sovereignty as well as the privacy of our citizens.”
‘President Trump says he will ban the social media video app in the U.S.’
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Comments
More deceit from China. This isn’t the innocent company or app that they pretend it to be. That Microsoft is looking to buy it gives me more worries about it, not less. It’s like any other app which you are the product.
How people don’t see it with these things is beyond me. While you can’t isolate yourself completely, why do so many insist on thinking they do nothing wrong so big deal if all my data can be harvested? It is pervasive and they use psychological tools to affect the way you think. This stuff is worse than Big Brother.
“Donal Trump, don’t trust China. China is asshole!”
An executive order is fine….. so long as Trump is in the White House! What really needs to be done long term is we need to gain back control of Congress and get some laws passed governing what information apps can gather on you as well as laws governing how and with whom that data can be shared. That gives us a solid legal avenue to pursue should we allow Chinese, or other foreign apps, into our marketplace and they try to abuse U.S. users with illegal spying.
This, if done properly, may also curb some bad behavior from some American companies as well. For instance, social media companies banning users for things that were posted on other platforms but not their own. IIRC In one particularly bad instance: When Sargon of Akkad and a few others got banned from Patreon, a payment processer, Sargon switched to Subscribe Star. Patreon then led an effort to get Subscribe Star blocked from being used by certain major credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, etc. In short they tried to sink Subscribe Star because people they don’t like went to them. While Subscribe Star survived it did hurt them good for a while.
Another Chinese company which needs to be looked into is Iobit. They make system utilities which have total access. Potentially, they could be much worse than the companies already discussed.
not a fan of banning software users choose to use. wish people were smart enough to not want to use it.
Do you remember the Any Key?
heh heh press any key to proceed.
yeah I know some people are foolish. still, can’t legislate intelligence.
Not as cracy as the person who used HeweyDeweyLouieDonaldDaisyMickeyMinniePlutoLansing as their password. They were told use eight characters and a capitol…
🙂 never heard that one, gonna remember that one 🙂
“Besides the U.S., other countries have moved to ban Chinese apps on grounds of national security.“
A French privacy group is now investigating Tik-Tok:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-tiktok-privacy-idUSKCN25718J
Of course, the Joseph Goebbels media will continue to insist this is just racism from Trump.
Re: “China’s TikTok Vows Legal and PR Campaign Against Trump Ban”
Duh. Like they weren’t already…..
Twice in 2 two weeks TicToc was caught illegally taking data on UNDER-AGE children.
Comminist China is a big player in the child sex and slave trade????????
So TheDonald just trolled a Chinese tech company into making ongoing in kind contributions to his reelection campaign?
How does he do these things.