Apple co-founder: If TikTok is banned, the American tech giant should also be investigated
The United States has recently accelerated the encirclement and suppression of TikTok, which has sparked heated discussions. According to Bloomberg, Apple co-founder Stephen Gary Wozniak (Stephen Gary Wozniak) said in a recent TV interview when asked what he thinks about the matter, if TikTok is banned, the American tech giant should also be investigated.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was interviewed Video screenshot (the same below)
"What's wrong with TikTok? Information can be spied on, monitored, you're tracked? Wait, isn't every big tech company in the U.S. having something like that? So I'm wondering, what the hell is going on. Wozniak said that in his opinion, TikTok is a good entertainment content producer.
Speaking of which, another moderator chimed in, "But I think there's a data privacy issue involved, and there's also the content of the communications coming out of China, which might affect what we receive, and ultimately the public's mind." ”
Before the host could finish speaking, Wozniak asked rhetorically, "Do you think the Chinese have learned this from us?"
At this time, the host hurriedly explained that he didn't have any ideas, just stating the reasons why people were against TikTok. Hearing this, Wozniak couldn't help but sneer.
"I don't agree with this statement, and the opposition to TikTok is based on a matter of principle, which means distinguishing between right and wrong at all times and places, but I don't think this matter involves principles. Wozniak believes that there are many other companies that should be investigated before targeting TikTok, if any principles are to be true.
It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time Wozniak has spoken out on the "TikTok Act". According to CNN, Wozniak previously said he had a lot of fun with TikTok. He believes that if there is a privacy principle, it should be applied to every company or every country. Rather than saying, in some cases, outlawing a piece of software, in others, it's another way of dealing with it, "I don't like this hypocrisy."
Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 with his business partner, Steve Jobs. That same year, Wozniak assembled 200 first-generation Apple I, priced at $666.66 per unit at the time.
Earlier this month (March 13), the U.S. House of Representatives quickly passed a TikTok-related bill by an overwhelming majority of 352 to 65 votes in just one week, which requires Chinese tech company ByteDance to divest its short video app TikTok within 165 days, otherwise TikTok will be banned from major app stores and suspended hosting services.
On the 20th, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bipartisan bill called the "Protecting Americans' Data from Foreign Adversaries Act" (hereinafter referred to as the "Data Privacy Act"), which prohibits third-party entities from selling Americans' "sensitive data" to "foreign adversaries" such as China and Russia.
According to Politico, the two bills "complement each other" and that the data privacy bill could prevent "foreign adversaries" from accessing U.S. data through channels other than TikTok.
Currently, both bills need to be passed in the Democratic-controlled Senate and signed by US President Joe Biden to become law.
In response to the US's repeated presumption of guilt and unreasonable suppression of relevant companies on the grounds of "concern for national security", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin has said that China has always maintained that data security should not become a tool for individual countries to generalize the concept of national security and abuse state power to unreasonably suppress other countries' enterprises. So far, the U.S. has failed to produce evidence that TikTok threatens U.S. national security. The US should stop spreading disinformation on data security issues, stop unreasonably suppressing relevant companies, and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for companies from all over the world to invest and operate in the US.
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