Amazon, Tik Tok, and the Giants War

Amazon and Tik Tok after the escalation of Huawei .. as if the relationship between the United States and China was missing a new factor to increase tension, despite the fierce war that has been going on for months between them, which began with trade disputes, and then the Corona pandemic, through the attacks of Chinese hackers on some research centers related to With the emerging virus, leading to the ban or reduction of flights by the US administration, the strictness in granting visas to Chinese students, and the Hong Kong and Taiwan file that accumulated the intensity of the dispute between the two powers, a new chapter has come to this tense relationship.

The US giant Amazon has ordered its employees to delete the Chinese video application “Tik Tok” from their mobile phones, and explained the reason for “security risks”, according to an email sent by the company, on Friday.

In the email, obtained by The New York Times, Amazon officials said that employees should delete the app from any devices that have access to Amazon email.

The memo added: “Employees had to remove the app by Friday to still be able to access their email via Amazon, adding that Amazon workers are still allowed to view TikTok from their laptop browser.

Committed to users' privacy

On the other hand, Tik Tok responded to Amazon's decision that user security is "of paramount importance" and that it is committed to users' privacy, adding: "Although Amazon did not contact us before sending its email, and we still do not understand their concerns, we welcome dialogue."

The move by Amazon - which has more than 500,000 employees in the US - adds to the difficulties facing TikTok, which is popular with young people in the US. Because it is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, as well as rising tensions between the United States and China over issues such as the dominance of trade and technology, TikTok has come under increased scrutiny in Washington over whether it is safe.

Trump administration: applications that threaten national security

It is noteworthy that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had indicated last Monday that the Trump administration is considering blocking some Chinese applications, which he described as a threat to national security.

Last year, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a federal panel that reviews foreign acquisitions of American companies on national security grounds, opened a national security review of ByteDance's acquisition of Musical.ly, which eventually became TikTok.

In response, ByteDance said it would separate TikTok from most of its Chinese operations, and that users' personal data would be stored in the United States rather than in China.

In addition, the world is still waiting for a way to end these disputes between the country of fifty states and the country of one billion that have been stuck for months.