US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo received from Fox News whether the US government should ban TikTok and other Chinese social media. “We take it very seriously. We are certainly considering it,” Pompeo said.

According to the minister, the US has long been faced with the problem of using Chinese technology. “Like Huawei’s technology infrastructure problems, we have gone global and taken major steps to eliminate them,” Pompeo said. “As far as Chinese apps are concerned, the US also wants to address this.”

Huawei is ahead of TikTok

Many countries, whether at the urging of the US or not, are restricting the use of Huawei technology. Huawei is one of the main suppliers of telecommunications equipment, including for new 5G networks. Britain even wants to speed up the phasing out of Huawei technology in its networks, to please its key ally, the United States.

Be careful

The Minister of Finance was reluctant to discuss it in more detail because he could not precede the president’s announcement. The secretary warned that Americans “should be careful with TikTok, lest they want their personal information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”

TikTok has long been criticized for its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. The company has sought to calm those concerns by opening offices in the US and Europe, and promising not to share data with its offices in China, nor with the Chinese government. But concerns still exist.

Very popular

TikTok has become one of the most popular social media in recent years, especially among young people. The app has long been the most downloaded app in the US, for both Android and iOS. The US is also third in terms of TikTok users, after China and India. Overall, TikTok is broad 2 billion times downloaded.

TikTok has not yet responded to the US plan.