Washington’s recent order banning cooperation with TikTok is an attempt to protect the dominance of American IT giants, and violates the rules of the World Trade Organization, Moscow has said.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the action against TikTok “another fragrant example of unfair competition for the dominance in the field of information.”
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would in 45 days ban Americans from dealing with ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, unless the app is sold by its Chinese-owned parent company. Trump accused the social media network of collecting personal data of US citizens and sharing it with the Chinese government.
Both China and TikTok denied Trump’s allegations. Zakharova, likewise, called such claims “baseless,” and argued that the US politicians simply wanted to “shamelessly strong-arm” a Chinese-owned company into being absorbed by an American one.
The actions by the US authorities violate the basic principles of a free market economy and the norms of the WTO.
Zakharova urged Washington to bring its “methods of maintaining the monopoly of American IT giants” in accordance with “democratic values” and international law.
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