China could spy on Army with TikTok

CHINESE social media giant TikTok could give Beijing the edge in future conflicts, tech experts warn.

- Marco Giannangeli

It follows a “war game” run by US cyber firm Safe House Global (SHG).

Information is often posted by users in the military which can be easily harvested by a hostile Chinese government, it was claimed.

The video-sharing app, owned by Chinese firm Bytedance, has 800 million regular users worldwide.

While claims TikTok tracks users in illegal ways have been disproved, its links to the Beijing government are a security fear for Western intelligence agencies.

Edicts from premier Xi Jinping remove the rights of Chinese-owned firms to ignore the will of their political masters. This would allow them to use AI to harvest information and target individuals.