Blinken: TikTok is a threat that must end one way or another

The Secretary of State for USAAntony Blinken, opined this Thursday that the Chinese application TikTok is a “threat” to the national security of his country that “It must end one way or another.”

The leader of American diplomacy made these statements before a committee of the House of Representatives the same day that the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, asked before another hearing of the US Congress that the application not be vetoed in the country.

Republican Congressman Ken Buck asked Blinken if TikTok is a “threat to the security of the United States”, to which the senior official replied: “I think it is. Yeah”.

When the same legislator asked him if the application of Chinese origin should be prohibited in the United States, the foreign minister replied that “It should end one way or another. There are different ways to do it.”

“We, the Administration, and others are facing the challenge that (TikTok) poses and we are taking steps to address it”he assured.

The United States has accused China of using TikTok as a spying tool, banning the app from downloading to government mobile phones, while Congress debates bills to veto it nationwide.

This same Thursday, the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, warned congressmen that banning their platform would harm the economy and freedom of expression.

Chew recalled that he is a Singaporean and that he resides in his country, that TikTok is run by an executive team in the United States and Singapore, that its headquarters are in Los Angeles (USA) and on that Asian island and that it is not available in the Chinese mainland.

He said he was aware, however, that the fact that its parent company, ByteDance, has Chinese founders has raised suspicions about whether its platform could be used or become a tool of China or the Communist Party.

His answer on whether ByteDance has spied on Americans was more ambiguous: “I don’t think spying is the right way to describe it.”

Source: EFE