US military instructs soldiers to delete Chinese-owned video app TikTok

The United States military is warning soldiers not to use the Chinese-owned short video app TikTok over national security concerns, US media are reporting.

The US Army is now banning the app on government-owned phones, about two weeks after the Navy did the same.

The app is sparking concerns in the American defense and intelligence community that information sent on it — or contained in other apps used on phones on which it is installed — could be monitored by Chinese authorities, allowing Beijing to track US military personnel and potentially to access information from US military intranets to which the soldiers’ phones may be connected.

“There was a Cyber Awareness Message sent out on 16 December [that] identifies TikTok as having potential security risks associated with its use,” CNN quotes Army spokesperson Lt. Col Robin L. Ochoa as saying. “The message directs appropriate action for employees to take in order to safeguard their personal information. The guidance is to be wary of applications you download, monitor your phones for unusual and unsolicited texts etc., and delete them immediately and uninstall TikTok to circumvent any exposure of personal information.”