China on Thursday urged the United States to stop “unjustified attacks” against the TikTok application, after a request by the American government to its Chinese parent company to separate from it under penalty of prohibition for national security reasons.
According to the Wall Street Journal and other American dailies, the White House has issued an ultimatum: if TikTok remains in the fold of ByteDance, it will be banned in the United States.
TikTok confirmed to AFP that the US government had recommended the application be transferred by its owner.
Washington “has so far not provided evidence that TikTok threatens the national security of the United States”, reacted Wednesday to the press a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin.
“The United States should stop spreading false information on data security issues, stop unwarranted attacks [contre TikTok] and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment” for foreign businesses, the spokesperson added.
TikTok is accused by critics of giving Chinese authorities access to user data around the world, which the short-video app denies.
The White House has already banned officials of federal institutions from having the app on their smartphones, pursuant to a law ratified in early January.
The European Commission and the Canadian government recently made similar decisions for their civil servants’ mobile phones.
TikTok stores US user data on servers located in the country. The application admitted that employees based in China had access to it, but under a strict and limited framework, and not the Chinese government.