Ban TikTok | The United States investigates the owner for spying on journalists

by time news

The Justice Department of USA is investigating ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTokfor him possible espionage of US citizens, including journalists, as confirmed by internal sources to Forbes magazine.

The investigation was opened late last year and appears to be linked to the company’s admission in December, when it confessed that some of its employees misused its access to user data to monitor two Forbes reporters who are dedicated to to inform the popular video platform. With that tracking, they tried to discover who leaked confidential information and documents to them from within the company. After the scandal was uncovered, ByteDance fired those responsible.

The FBI and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia are also involved in a federal criminal investigation that comes at a critical time for TikTok. Earlier this week, the White House toughened its stance by demanding ByteDance’s Chinese owners sell their stake in the company and threatened to push for a full app ban if they didn’t. The US Congress is already processing a veto of the ‘app’.

This demand responds to the suspicions of Washington, which fears that the data of TikTok users could end up in the hands of the Xi Jinping government. Two of the employees involved in that breach of user privacy operated from China.

wave of restrictions

Although not proven, the theory that TikTok is a Trojan horse from Beijing to gather information and undermine the democratic institutions of its enemy countries has found its way among US allies. In recent weeks, countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Belgium and the European Commission have prohibited their officials from using the platform from their government mobile phones, a restriction that was already applied by more than a dozen US states. Spain has not yet chosen that path.

“We have strongly condemned the actions of the people involved, who no longer work at ByteDance. Our internal investigation is ongoing and we will cooperate with any official investigation that comes our way,” said Jennifer Banks, a spokeswoman for the Chinese company.

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