A senior lawmaker in the Philippines has raised concerns about the popular social media app TikTok, citing potential threats to national security and user privacy.
The lawmaker, in an interview on Monday, expressed a strong belief the Chinese government could be exploiting TikTok to gain access to sensitive information of Filipino users, numbering 49.09 million.
The escalating geopolitical dispute between the Philippines and China over the West Philippine Sea has heightened these concerns. “We must safeguard our national interest against countries that threaten us,” the lawmaker, who sought anonymity for now, said.
A bill was recently filed by the lawmaker proposing a ban on social media applications controlled by “foreign adversaries,” including TikTok. This aims to protect Filipinos from manipulative and misleading social campaigns.
TikTok, owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, has faced scrutiny due to its suspected ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The lawmaker stressed that these links “cannot be ignored.”
Despite claims by TikTok’s Singaporean CEO, Shou Chew, that the app does not operate in mainland China, the lawmaker raised suspicions about ByteDance being used for intelligence gathering in “countries they want to spy on, including the Philippines.”
The lawmaker referenced India’s ban on TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps in June 2020, following a deadly military clash on the India-China border.
Several other countries, beyond India, have restricted TikTok on government devices due to concerns about user data potentially reaching the Chinese government.
These countries include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Indonesia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.