Indian Thought Latest News & Views
new Delhi. The commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said India set an ‘incredibly important precedent’ by banning TikTok two-and-a-half years ago as he anticipated a similar ban against Chinese app giant ByteDance in the US.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr warned that TikTok “serves as a special surveillance tool,” and that banning the media app is “the natural next step from Russia in our efforts to secure communications networks.”
The senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission said he is concerned that China could use sensitive and non-public data from TikTok for “blackmail, espionage, foreign influence operations and surveillance”. . “We need to follow India’s lead more broadly to remove other harmful apps as well,” he said.
Carr’s statement reflects growing pressure among US states and lawmakers, who are increasingly vigilant against TikTok, which has more than 100 million users in the country. India has banned hundreds of apps including TikTok, PUBG Mobile, Battleground Mobile India and UC Browser belonging to China in the last two years amid clashes along the border of the two neighboring countries.
New Delhi had said that it had banned apps linked to China because these apps “posed a threat to India’s national security and defence, which ultimately impinges on India’s sovereignty and integrity”. There were over 200 million monthly active users and the South Asian nation (India) was counted as its largest international market in terms of users before the ban.
