China says EU TikTok ban will harm business confidence

BEIJING –

China says a ban on using TikTok by official European Union establishments will hurt business confidence in Europe.

In the newest salvo within the battle over the Chinese-owned video-sharing app, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council have banned TikTok from being put in on official units

That follows comparable actions taken by the U.S. federal authorities, Congress and greater than half of the 50 U.S. states. Canada has additionally banned it from authorities units.

TikTok is wildly common amongst teenagers, however there are considerations China might use its authorized and regulatory powers to acquire personal consumer knowledge or to attempt to push misinformation or narratives favouring China on the platform.

China has been pushing again, although its ruling Communist Party has lengthy blocked many international social media platforms and messaging apps, together with YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram — and TikTok. A Chinese model of the app, Douyin, is permitted, however its content material shouldn’t be the identical as that discovered on TikTok.

“The EU claims to be the most open market in the world, but recently it has been taking restrictive measures and unreasonably suppressing other countries’ companies on the grounds of national security,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning mentioned at a day by day briefing Wednesday.

“This will dampen the international community’s confidence in the business environment in the EU,” Mao mentioned.

“The EU should match its words with deeds, respect the market economy and fair competition, stop overstretching and abusing the concept of national security and provide an open, fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for all companies,” Mao mentioned.

EU staffers are required to delete TikTok from units that they use for skilled business by March 15. In Norway, which isn’t a member of the 27-nation EU, the justice minister was compelled to apologize this month for failing to reveal that she had put in TikTok on her government-issued telephone.

TikTok additionally has come below stress from the EU to adjust to upcoming new digital rules geared toward getting huge on-line platforms to scrub up poisonous and unlawful content material together with the bloc’s strict knowledge privateness guidelines.

In the U.S., the White House is giving a ll federal businesses, in steerage issued Monday, 30 days to wipe TikTok off all authorities units. The White House already didn’t enable TikTok on its units.