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Indonesian CNN

Thursday 09 March 2023 18:00 WIB

Jakarta, CNNIIndonesia —

ICT Tac denied accusations of being an intelligence tool China Western countries while citing blocking access as more politically motivated.

Previously, it was reported that TikTok had been blocked from government devices in a number of state and government agencies in the United States and Canada. Additionally, a bill to block TikTok has emerged. All are linked to concerns that the platform is a tool for Chinese spies.

“These claims are false and baseless. The Chinese government has no direct or indirect control over ByteDance or TikTok,” a TikTok spokesperson said in an official statement to CNNIndonesia.comThursday (9/3).

The statement also mentions that the shares of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, are held by global investors (60%), company founders (20%) and employees (20%).

“ByteDance is a privately owned global company,” according to the spokesperson.

The TikTok spokesperson also claims that user privacy and security are the app’s top priority.

“The privacy and security of our users, including our users in Indonesia, is one of our top priorities,” he said.

“TikTok takes the responsibility to protect the privacy and security of user data seriously and devotes significant attention and resources to achieving this goal,” the spokesperson continued.

While acknowledging that a similar ban has not been implemented in RI, TikTok remains disappointed with the actions taken by a number of government agencies in various countries with different access blocks.

“We appreciate that some governments have wisely chosen not to enforce the ban due to a lack of evidence supporting the need to enforce the ban.”

“However, it is very disappointing for us to see several other government agencies and institutions ban the TikTok app on their employees’ devices without deliberation or evidence. This ban is based on fundamental misinformation about our business,” the company claims. .

TikTok said the US federal device ban was unilateral without first confirming it.

“We were surprised that the government that imposed the ban did not contact us directly or provide an explanation.”

“We have requested a meeting to clarify how we protect our users’ data, including users in the United States and Canada who come to TikTok each month,” the company continued.

“This ban is nothing more than a political decision,” TikTok said.

Previously, the United States and Canada banned government devices from using the TikTok app for cybersecurity in their countries. The Canadian government has banned TikTok from all official state-issued electronic devices as of Tuesday (2/28).

US officials and their allies have expressed concern while saying that TikTok or its Chinese parent company ByteDance could be coerced by the Chinese government to hand over users’ personal information.

Independent security experts say it is possible that the Chinese government may ask TikTok to be able to infiltrate government information. Although, so far, there have been no reported incidents of such access.

More recently, the US House of Representatives proposed legislation that would allow President Joe Biden to block social media from China.

The law is called the Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries Act (DATA Act), which was announced to members of the US legislature on Friday (24/2) local time.

CNN the text of the report in the DATA law specifically mentions TikTok and ByteDance. The law also allows Joe Biden to impose a ban sanction on both entities.

(can/arh)