Chinese-owned data-collection app TikTok now is banned on all mobile devices issued by the U.S. House.
The platform, which allows users to post brief videos and messages, is owned by a company with connections to the Chinese Communist Party and is well-known for its agenda of collecting data on users, data that eventually can be analyzed by the CCP.
Now, NBC is reporting that there are orders for lawmakers and staff members to erase TikTok from any device, including mobile phones, that are issued by the House.
An internal memo cited by the report said they also are prohibited from downloading the software.
NBC said the memo is from Catherine L. Szpindor, the chief administrative officer of the House, and explained her office determined TikTok is a “high risk” for users.
“House staff are NOT allowed to download the TikTok app on any House mobile devices,” members and employees were told. “If you have the TikTok app on your House mobile device, you will be contacted to remove it.”
The ruling, however, does not apply to the Senate, where Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has called for the program to be banned throughout the United States.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned the Chinese government could use TikTok to control users’ devices for influence or espionage purposes.
The Gateway Pundit said it previously had documented a move in Congress to ban the software entirely.
It is the “Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship, and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act,” or ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act, that seeks to “protect Americans from the threat posed by certain foreign adversaries using current or potential future social media companies that those foreign adversaries control to surveil Americans, learn sensitive data about Americans, or spread influence campaigns, propaganda, and censorship.”
President Donald Trump had tried to kick the company’s operations out of the country but was blocked by his political opponents including Democrats who now have admitted he was right all along.
One was Democrat Sen. Mark Warner, who admitted, “Well, I think Donald Trump was right. I mean, TikTok is an enormous threat.”
He said parents especially should be aware that if their children have the program, “all of that data that your child is inputting and receiving is being stored somewhere in Beijing.”
via wnd
