Within a few hours last Friday, online selling marketplace Amazon prohibited, then unbanned the video sharing platform TikTok from mobile devices of employees. The latest: Amazon officials called the decision a "mistake," Epoch Times reported.
During the decision to ban, the news gained media attention for the social media app after the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that the United States wants to, once and for all ban TikTok, since it seems to be sharing information from Chinese authorities, particularly government information.
The initial decision had tech specialists baffled about the reason why. However, the media have reported that this was due to "security reasons."
Eventually, the decision to prohibit TikTok in the workplace was reversed, an email forwarded to the company employees clarified.
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Confused business partners
Earlier during the week, Wells Fargo has already sent a memo to employees asking them to uninstall the app from their devices because of the issue and the decision.
"Due to concerns about TikTok's privacy and security controls and practices, and because corporate-owned devices should be used for company business only, we have directed those employees to remove the app from their devices," Wells Fargo released the statement.
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According to a TikTok spokesman, they have not been contacted or coordinated with by Wells Fargo, "but as with any organization that has concerns, we are open to engaging with them constructively and letting them know about the actions we have taken to protect data security for our users."
Handling of data issues
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a firm based in China, and has recently been situated under scrutiny for data handling across its worldwide users. It is one of the fastest growing platforms across the globe. It could be remembered that India also banned TikTok last month.
In particular, the app said their user data is stored in the U.S., and while this is the case, it had a backup copy located in Singapore. In Virginia state, the user data is within the data center in the Google Cloud.
With regards to this, TikTok has not commented. As of press time, Google has not issued a statement, either.
Is this an issue? Yes, if data handling will be looked at closely.
"Only if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party," Pompeo added.
In previous reports, TikTok users were recognized and upheld in the media to be the participants in the Trump campaign rally at Tulsa. Now, the government is taking a stance against TikTok. For instance, the Democratic National Committee on Friday requested for its members to avoid downloading the app.
Amazon will not be banning TikTok from employees' phones. However, the industry is in tune for possible changes and updates.
