Taiwan probes China's TikTok over national security concerns like US

In a measure similar to the United States, the self-ruled island of Taiwan on Monday launched an investigation into the Chinese app TikTok for its alleged illegal activities that risk national security. Taiwan plans to ban the use of TikTok and other Chinese apps from being installed or used on public devices or in government offices, reported Taiwan's Central News Agency and Liberty Times, citing unnamed government officials from the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA).

In a statement published this week, Taiwan's China-policy-making Mainland Affairs Council said that the Chinese video app TikTok was suspected of "illegal commercial operations" in what was labelled a breach of the law that the Mainland Affairs Council's working group was probing. 

Harmful against national information security

Taiwan's official said that the Chinese apps were “harmful products against national information security," according to local reports, and whilst discussing the ban on personal smartphones, the official said MODA would refer to the concerned authorities “similar practices by other countries” as it makes a decision.

The officials pushed for a ban to be imposed on all mainland China-made software, stating that it threatens the principles of Limiting Harmful Products Against National Information Security Used by Government Agencies. TikTok is banned in India and faced scrutiny in the US recently over national security concerns. Parent company ByteDance said that the reports about the company setting up a subsidiary that has links with the Chinese government in Taiwan were incorrect. 

This week, US lawmakers in the House and Senate unveiled legislation to effectively ban TikTok heeding the previous warnings from the FBI director and cybersecurity experts. Speculations arose that the app was used by China for alleged spying on global citizens. The bill would "protect Americans by blocking and prohibiting all transactions from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries of concern," the lawmakers stated in a news release. 

FBI Director Chris Wray raised concerns about TikTok being a national security threat as he warned that the popular Chinese video-sharing app “that doesn't share our values" was used for alleged spying by the Chinese government. Wray said that the Chinese authorities have the ability to control the app's algorithm, “which allows them to manipulate content and if they want to, to use it for influence operations."