Anonymous Demands TikTok’s International Boycott, Calls it ‘Chinese Spyware’

Following India’s ban on Tik Tok and 59 other Chinese apps. The influential Hacker group Anonymous has launched a vicious campaign on social media sites to ban TikTok globally, alleging it’s a Chinese government malware that spy on its millions of users.

The ByteDance-owned platform was named among the 59 Chinese apps that were banned by the Indian government this week. TikTok has nearly 120 million users across the country.

Global backlash against the short video making app intensified after the Beta version of iOS 14 revealed it continuously reading user clipboards TikTok later told The Telegraph that it would no longer automatically access user clipboards on iPhones.

Last Wednesday, the Anonymous Group tweeted:

The account posted a link to a Reddit post from an engineer who reported that he had “reversed engineered” TikTok to find a variety of security and privacy issues.

TikTok has yet to comment on the Reddit post or media reports about it. “Tiktok is gathering data on children / teens to track their market penetration and political development; to find the best methodologies to compel them to do so in the next 5-10 years. This gives China the upper hand over the exploitation of large parts of society across a range of countries,” Anonymous further tweeted.

The state-sponsored media outlet The Global Times tweeted on Wednesday that ByteDance ‘s loss could hit up to $ 6 billion after India blocked 59 Chinese applications.

“The loss of Chinese internet company ByteDance TikTok’s mother company may be as high as $6 billion after the Indian government forbade 59 Chinese devices, including TikTok, following a deadly border clash between Indian and Chinese troops last month,” the Global Times tweeted.

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer said that the company is working with various stakeholders to resolve the concerns posed by the Indian Government and remains committed to supporting the welfare of the TikTok Creator Community until the interim ban order is in force.

Mayer, who is also the COO of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, said that their creator managers are regularly engaged with top creators to remind them of their progress and feedback on the way forward.