The most popular video making app world-wide – TikTok is banned by the U.S. Navy. The ban is applicable to all the government-issued devices indicating TikTok a “Cybersecurity Threat”.
The U.S navy has issued the bulletin on Tuesday through Facebook page meant for all military members. The bulletin said that all those navy members who have the TikTok app and did not uninstall the app would be blocked from the official Navy-Marine Corps Intranet.
The U.S. navy only gave the reason of security concerns without any details that how a social media app like TikTok can endanger the security of the nation. But Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Uriah Orland said in his statement that the order given by the U.S. Navy is part of an effort to “address existing and emerging threats”.
TikTok is a very popular app where most teenagers are found. It is now under the radar of U.S regulators and lawmakers. It is probably because of the recent incident happened in California where a college student claims that this most-liked video-sharing app has transferred the data to China in spite of the assurance given by the developers of TikTok that it does not keep any data of its users.
The company behind TikTok is already in the blacklist on the accusation of possible censorship of politically sensitive content. The U.S. government has opened a national security review of the app’s owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co’s $1 billion acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.ly.
In the month of Nov, the U.S. army was strictly instructed to not make use of TikTok, when Senator Chuck Schumer highlights the security concerns about the army using TikTok in the process of army recruiting.
A spokesman from the navy and marine personnel said that usually devices issued by the government are not presented to use popular social media apps but for security reasons, some of the apps are restricted from time to time.
The Pentagon’s Orland said in his “Cyber Awareness Message” sent on 16th Dec. That, “identifies the potential risk associated with using the TikTok app and directs appropriate action for employees to take in order to safeguard their personal information.”
