Japanese lawmaker bans eyes on TikTok, others if used inappropriately

TOKYO: A group of lawmakers from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) plan to draw up a proposal next month urging the government to ban social networking services like TikTok if they are used in disinformation campaigns, Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers said on Monday (March 3) 27th of May). .

A number of US lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to ban the popular Chinese-owned social media app, arguing that the app could be used to collect data, censor content and harm children’s mental health.

Norihiro Nakayama told Reuters that “if an app is found to have been intentionally used by a specific party in a specific country to maliciously influence it, we should consider disabling it immediately.”

“Making it clear that operations can be shut down will help keep app operators in check, as it means, for example, that TikTok’s 17 million users (in Japan) will lose access,” Nakayama said. It will lead to sensations.” .

Nakayama, senior member of the ruling party’s group of lawmakers seeking ways to bolster Japan’s economic security, added that the group plans to edit its recommendations next month and that the proposals will not target specific platforms.

A series of Western governments and institutions have banned TikTok in recent weeks, including the British Parliament, the Dutch and Belgian administrations, and the New Zealand Parliament.

In Japan, the use of TikTok and other social networking services (SNS) on government devices that handle confidential information is prohibited.

Nakayama said further restrictions should only be considered after examining data processing and other tasks.

“First of all, I think we need to make sure that outsiders have a clear picture of how the data is being handled whenever a concern is raised,” said Nakayama.