After India Banned TikTok, US Too Mulls Restriction On Chinese Short-Video Sharing App

After India banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok over national security concerns, the United States is also mulling to restrict the users' access of the Chinese short-video sharing app in the country, reports Fox News.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday (6 July) said that the Trump administration is mulling restricting US users' access to the Chinese app over concerns that it is potentially being used by Beijing as a means to propangadize and surveil people.

Responding to a question that if the US was considering a ban on TikTok after India banned the app and Australia is also considering to do so, Pompeo said that he and and President Donald Trump were taking the reports seriously.

It should be noted that India on 29 June had banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok saying that all these apps were found to be engaged in activities “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India".

"We are taking this very seriously and we are certainly looking at it. We have worked on this very issue for a long time, whether its the problem of having Huawei technology in your infrastructure -- we've gone all over the world and we are making real progress getting that out -- we had declared ZTE a danger to American national security," Pompeo was quoted as saying.

"With respect to Chinese apps on people's cell phones, I can assure you the United States will get this one right too," he said.

He added that he did not want to dive into specifics and potentially "get ahead" of any presidential announcement.

"But, it is something we are looking at," Pompeo said.

The US Secretary of State further warned the smartphone users in US against downloading the Chinese app, quipping that American citizens should only download the app if they want to have their "private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist party".