PH military bans use of Tiktok among uniformed personnel

This Monday, Sept. 28, 2020, file photo, shows the TikTok logo on a smartphone in Tokyo. The Chinese government has made investments in two of the nation’s most significant technology firms: ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns global video app TikTok, and Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, in a move apparently intended to bolster its sway over the nation’s flourishing technology sector. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines: Soldiers should say goodbye to their Tiktok accounts if ever they signed up for one as the Armed Forces of the Philippines banned military personnel from using the popular social media app due to cybersecurity risks.

Police Colonel Francel Padilla, AFP spokesman, said the ban will be implemented on work, as well as personal phones of military personnel.

“Sa AFP, banned na po siya (In AFP, the use of TikTok has been banned already). So we are not allowed to use TikTok. For one, because it’s an application made by China but is not used by China. So that in itself, we say go figure,” she said in an interview aired over GMA network.

“We have a directive that we are not allowed to use TikTok. So we follow it to the letter,” Padilla added.

Padilla said TikTok and other free apps ask users for access to phone features like camera, microphone, and messages. That is even if their services have nothing to do with these functions.

“Not just Tiktok, but the free apps that we have in our gadgets, they have the capability to turn on our microphones, to look at us and watch us while we sleep and turn on our cameras, access our SMS sent messages to our contacts because we gave them permission when we downloaded these applications,” she said.

It will be recalled that in September last year, the National Security Council (NSC) had said that they are seriously studying the possibility of banning Tiktok among the government’s uniformed personnel to avoid possible “data leak.”

It is not just in the Philippines, as other countries such as the United States, India, and Canada have announced moves to ban TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company, on government phones and state workers amid concerns that the application might give sensitive data to the Chinese government.