The Pentagon is in contact with the Latin American countries through which China’s “spy balloon” has passed, US President Joe Biden said Monday.
Asked if Washington has been in contact with its allies in Latin America, Biden replied: “The Department of Defense yes, I don’t”.
The Pentagon announced late Friday that it had detected another “spy balloon” Chinese on Latin America; and, this Monday, the Chinese government confirmed that the aircraft was its property and said that, unlike the United States, Latin American countries “they understand” that the airship does not “poses no threat”.
The countries over which the aircraft has been detected are Costa Rica, Colombia and Venezuelaaccording to different sources.
The crisis of thespy balloons” worsened this Saturday after the United States shot down, by direct order of Biden, the Chinese aircraft that had been flying over the North American country for several days.
In response to the move, China expressed deep “dissatisfaction and protest” considering that Washington “overreacted” by using force to shoot down the aircraft that was flying over its airspace.
The discovery of the first of these “spy balloons” in US airspace has triggered a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing and has led to the suspension of the trip that Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, planned to make to the Asian country last weekend. week.
Biden doesn’t have TikTok on his phone
President Joe Biden also said he has not yet made a decision on whether to ban the use of the TikTok app, owned by China’s ByteDance, but said he does not have it on his phone.
“I don’t know, but I know that I don’t have it on my cell phone”, Biden said in response to questions from the press upon his arrival at the White House after spending the weekend at the Camp David presidential residence in Maryland.
The use of TikTok is prohibited on mobile devices used by government employees, including those used by the president.
Congress passed legislation to that end in December, but several Democratic and Republican lawmakers want to go further, saying the app should be banned entirely in the United States, so Americans can’t download it or receive updates.
The FBI also raised concerns that TikTok could be used by Beijing for spying, as the app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
China has security laws that could force tech companies to share data with its intelligence services, but TikTok and other companies say those concerns are nonsense and the data is safe with them.
Locally, some states like Alabama, Virginia, and Tennessee have restricted TikTok use within government institutions, while territories like Indiana have filed lawsuits against ByteDance for allegedly enabling Chinese spying.
The governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, announced a new plan on Monday to ban the use of TikTok on devices of all officials who work for the state, including those who work as contractors, a further step in the restrictions that have gone announced in recent months.
The former president of the United States Donald Trump (2017-2021) tried to impose a veto on TikTok, but after a long legal battle it did not materialize.
TikTok has more than 80 million users in the United States and has become one of the most popular social networks in the world in a short time, especially among teenagers.
Source: EFE
Source: Gestion
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