Amazon said that a Friday email telling employees to delete the Chinese-owned app TikTok off their phones was ‘sent in error,’ the Washington Examiner reported.
“Due to security risks, the TikTok app is no longer permitted on mobile devices that access Amazon email,” the email read. “If you have TikTok on your device, you must remove it by 10-Jul to retain mobile access to Amazon email. At this time, using TikTok from your Amazon laptop browser is allowed.” (RELATED: Trump Could Ban Tik Tok And Other Chinese Apps — What Does That Mean For November?)
????: Amazon’s IT department has told *all staff* to delete TikTok from their phones over “security risks”….. pic.twitter.com/HxzlK8RKgi
— Mark Di Stefano (@MarkDiStef) July 10, 2020
An Amazon spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that “this morning’s email to some of our employees was sent in error,” and that “there is no change to our policies right now with regard to TikTok.”
TikTok said in a statement that Amazon didn’t communicate with them before they sent the email and that they “still do not understand their concerns,” according to the New York Times report.
“We welcome a dialogue,” they added, saying that user security is “of the utmost importance.”
Politicians and national security experts have expressed concerns about the popular video app.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley announced legislation in March to ban Tik Tok from all government devices. “TikTok is owned by a Chinese company that includes Chinese Communist Party members in leadership, and it is required by Chinese law to share user data with Beijing,” Hawley said during a hearing. “TikTok has admitted that it has sent user data to China. To put it bluntly, this is a major security risk for the American people.”
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said in October that the app could be used for foreign influence campaigns or to spy on Americans, and requested an assessment from the U.S. intelligence community on the app’s national security risks. TikTok has also been banned by the U.S. Army.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the Trump Administration was considering banning the app. “We are taking this very seriously,” he told Fox News. “We are certainly looking at it.”
Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to include the fact that Amazon sent their original email in error.
