TikTok target of anti-China paranoia

The furore in the United States over so-called Chinese spying, sparked by the Joe Biden administration's botched response to an errant Chinese meteorological research balloon, has been given a new lease on life, with the White House on Monday giving government agencies 30 days to remove the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok from all federal devices and systems, alleging that it poses national security risks.

Canada, which always toes the US' line in its anti-China strategy, also announced it is banning Tik-Tok from all government-issued mobile devices.

Some US agencies, including the departments of defense, homeland security and state, already have restrictions on the Chinese app in place, as Congress passed the "No TikTok on Government Devices Act" in December, which requires the social media app to be removed from the information technology of federal agencies. The ban does not apply to entities not associated with the federal government, or to the millions of US people who use the hugely popular app.