The UK and New Zealand, key security partners for the US in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, have decided to up the ante on TikTok too this week by also banning the app from government devices. France isThere's more than just spying fears. The app is a stand-in for poor relations with China and, to a lesser degree, a fear that Chinese tech may supersede Western tech.
"TikTok is the unlucky lightning rod for the geopolitical tension at the moment," said Ben Greenstone, managing director at public policy consultancy Taso Advisory and a former UK government official. There's been a steady flow of damning stories about TikTok and its ultimate parent firm ByteDance, which is headquartered in Beijing., is owned by a mix of global investors, while 20% is owned by employees, and another 20% by founders Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo.
This week, an anonymous former risk manager at TikTok said that information about the app's millions of American users still could be exposed to China, despite internal efforts to wall off US user data, the. The data-safeguarding plan, known as Project Texas, is costing TikTok $1.5 billion and involves hiving off US data in Oracle servers with government oversight. But, the person said, TikTok would need to be totally re-engineered to be fully leakproof, the Post reported.