Tag Archive for: TikTok

TikTok faces national security review in Canada: minister


TikTok faces national security review in Canada: minister

by AFP Staff Writers

Ottawa (AFP) Mar 15, 2024






Canada is conducting a national security review of Chinese-owned TikTok’s proposed expansion of the popular video app in this country, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Friday.

In a teleconference from Italy after meeting with his G7 counterparts, Champagne said the review under the Investment Canada Act had been quietly initiated in September 2023.

“We have launched a national security review (of TikTok),” he told reporters.

“Once we have completed that,” he said, “we’ll inform Canadians about any actions that we decide to take with respect to that particular topic.”

“I’ll have more to say when our review is completed,” the minister added without saying when that would be.

Champagne noted a March 2023 announcement that foreign investments in Canada’s interactive digital media sector would face “intense scrutiny.”

Those found to be “propagating disinformation or manipulating information in a manner that is injurious to Canada’s national security” could face mitigation measures or even a ban, according to the policy statement.

The Canadian review is not related to a proposed US bill that would force its Chinese owners to sell or see it banned in the United States.

That bill is partly fuelled by concerns over Chinese national security laws that compel organizations to assist with intelligence gathering.

TikTok is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd.

“We’re watching, of course, the debate going on in the United States,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday after the US House of Representatives passed the bill, which still needs approval from the Senate.

Ottawa banned TikTok from federal government mobile devices in February 2023.

Related Links

Cyberwar – Internet Security News – Systems and Policy Issues

Source…

4Tbps milestone as TikTok joins NAPAfrica


Increased investment by global cloud providers is driving wider availability of internet-based digital services across Africa with content providers and enterprises looking to expand into the continent and businesses committing to moving more of their functions to the cloud. As a result, firms are busy looking to find regional infrastructure providers and the latest example of this phenomenon is the arrival of global social media platform TikTok to the growing community of NAPAfrica.

Established in 2012, NAPAfrica has over 560 members from more than 50 countries actively peering and claims to be Africa’s leading internet exchange point (IXP), the continent’s largest aggregation point and the sixth largest exchange globally by number of members. NAPAfrica operates IXPs within the Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg datacentres of carrier-neutral colocation provider Teraco, the first provider of highly resilient, vendor-neutral data environments in sub-Saharan Africa.

With a stated founding goal of helping to improve internet access for Africa, the company sees itself as playing a pivotal role in transforming Africa’s internet access and interconnection market.

Home to global carriers, cloud providers, content delivery networks, ISPs, internet security, and gaming platforms, the company claims that in a world where ease of interconnection, seamless peering arrangements, and platform reliability are essential, its internet exchange delivers. It says enterprises are taking advantage of the benefits of peering by connecting with cloud deployments, networks, security providers, and content providers within the company’s ecosystem to move to a digital economy.

NAPAfrica says increased network demand to service remote users has driven the adoption of key cloud and security applications. These include Akamai, Amazon, Cloudflare, Microsoft and Zscaler.

NAPAfrica also announced a significant milestone in its growth by surpassing the 4Tbps traffic milestone, representing a 33% growth in traffic volumes in under a year. NAPAfrica reached the 3Tbps traffic threshold in March 2023.

“The presence of over 250 carriers and networks is the drawcard for content providers like TikTok

Source…

First TikTok, Now Nvidia—U.S. Continues To Tighten National Security


Geopolitical tension between the U.S. and China continues to ensue. With continuous efforts to secure America’s supply chain and increase national security to upend China’s dominance in the manufacturing and technology sectors, the U.S. government is doubling down on its measures to ensure America’s safety and economic prosperity.

Earlier this year, we saw TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew appear before Congress to defend the popular social media platform against concerns of national security due to its alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party. With over 150 million American users—half of the U.S. population, lawmakers’ skepticism over TikTok’s ability to protect user data sparked a heated debate on whether TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance—a Chinese-owned company—would be forced to cooperate with China if requested to fork over data of U.S. citizens. During the congressional hearing, House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash) said, “TikTok surveils us all and the Chinese Communist Party is able to use this as a tool to manipulate America as a whole…We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values. Your platform should be banned.”

Just months after the viral showdown between TikTok and Congress, the fight over national security concerns has not abated. Refusing to relent on perceived threats of national security, the U.S. government continues to hammer down guardrails to secure the nation—now, with increased restrictions on AI chip exports to China.

Source…

TikTok has a China problem. Here’s how to protect your data.


TikTok is especially popular with teens.

I’ve been saying it for months: Get TikTok off your phone.

It’s not the only China-based app you need to worry about. Temu, the app that lets you “shop like a billionaire,” isn’t worth the deals.

Here’s why and what to do if you’ve been using it.

That’s not all. Here’s a list of dangerous apps you need to delete ASAP.

If you still want to use TikTok, you can without handing over all your information to communist China.

Why not just use the app?

Source…