NSC to study possible ban of Tiktok for gov’t security employees
The National Security Council (NSC) said Saturday it is looking into the possibility of banning TikTok for government security employees, amid concerns that the app by Chinese firm ByteDance is being used for espionage.
“We know for a fact that there are information operations and psychological warfare and other stuff being done,” NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya told the Saturday News Forum.
“I think we should consider it for the security sector alone, not for the other civilian agencies of government which are not part of the security sector, and precisely, the reason is for operational security,” he added.
Malaya said he was referring to the “armed forces uniformed personnel and in particular the intelligence entities of government”.
Several countries, including the United States, Canada and India, have banned the use of TikTok for government employees.
Malaya said he would discuss the possible ban with National Security Adviser Eduardo Año.
“We are monitoring how the other countries are dealing with this. Maybe, what I can do is I can raise this with the National Security Adviser if it would be proper for us to do so. Because you know, here in the Philippines, they will say it is a curtailment of the freedom of expression, curtailment of the freedom of speech, so we will need to study this very carefully if it is merited based on national security considerations,” he said.
In a separate interview on Sunday, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar rejected claims that the app is being used to spy on the government.
“I don’t think that platform is being used for spying. Because, first of all, their information isn’t accurate. They’re only speculating. They just want to have an excuse to stop the resupply mission. But even if that were true, what business does a neighbor have in our backyard? I do not believe that their intel is that good,” Aguilar told dzBB.
“Although, in the Armed Forces, we do have a policy on how to use social media to protect us from possible espionage using these platforms. Maybe they have embedded programs to locate us and probably get information…if cannot control and regulate their posting on social media, it could lead to giving away involuntary information,” he added. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
