China Questions US TikTok Ban: Why 'Fear A Young Person's Favorite App'?

China has accused the U.S. government of abusing state power to suppress foreign firms after the White House ordered a ban on TikTok from all federal government devices.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told reporters during a news briefing Tuesday that the U.S. government is afraid of a "young person's favorite app."

The U.S. government "has been overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress other countries' companies," Mao was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "How unsure of itself can the U.S., the world's top superpower, be to fear a young person's favorite app to such a degree?"

Mao urged the U.S. to respect the "principles of market economy and fair competition" and to stop suppressing foreign companies.

On Monday, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released guidance ordering federal government agencies to wipe the Chinese app from all government devices within 30 days. The agency said the guidance was a "critical step forward" in preventing foreign entities from accessing sensitive government data.

Federal chief information security officer Chris DeRusha said that the move reflects the Biden administration's commitment to "protecting the American people's security and privacy."

But even before the guidance was released, the White House, Congress and more than half of U.S. states had already banned TikTok from government-issued devices.

In December 2022, Congress passed a bipartisan spending bill that contains a provision banning TikTok from government devices. However, the legislation allowed the use of the app for certain cases, such as national security, law enforcement and research purposes.

The state of Indiana also sued TikTok late last year for allegedly endangering children's safety and deceiving its users over data protection. According to the lawsuit, the app's algorithms prioritize content depicting alcohol, tobacco and drug use as well as suggesting sexual themes.

On Monday, a spokesperson for TikTok said in a statement to USA Today that banning the app is "little more than political theater."

"The ban of TikTok on federal devices passed in December without any deliberation, and unfortunately that approach has served as a blueprint for other world governments," Brooke Oberwetter said. "We hope that when it comes to addressing national security concerns about TikTok beyond government devices, Congress will explore solutions that won't have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans."

The government's actions to restrict TikTok haven't stopped Americans from using the app. The latest data from Statista showed that the U.S. has the largest number of TikTok users outside of China, with 113 million monthly unique users.

Other countries are also moving to restrict the app from government devices.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has imposed a TikTok ban on government mobile phones and urged businesses and private individuals to remove the app from their phones to secure their data.

The European Commission's Corporate Management Board has also ordered a temporary suspension of TikTok from their employees' phones.