两个月前还在用抖音海外版TikTok征兵的美国陆军，如今在国会议员与五角大楼的压力下，也颁布了与海军类似的禁令。
据美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）当地时间12月30日报道，在美国海军“封杀”TikTok之后，美国陆军也以“安全威胁”为由，禁止在政府移动设备安装该应用。陆军发言人罗伯特·奥乔亚中校对CNN表示：“此前美国国防部发布的网络通知表明，TikTok的使用存在潜在安全风险。”
报道称，此次美国陆军做出这项禁令，依据的是美国国防部12月16日发布的、关于“网络敏感性”的通知。其中声称，使用TikTok存在“潜在的安全隐患”，并要求所有国防部雇员“警惕下载的应用程序，检查手机上是否有反常或者来路不明的短信，并立即删除他们，卸载TikTok以避免任何个人信息的泄露”。
在美国国防部发布这项通知后，美国海军18日先在脸书上发布了类似的禁令公告，要求已接入“海军/陆战队内部网”的用户删除TikTok，也禁止在政府移动设备上安装该应用。
公告称：“TikTok是网络安全威胁。用户不能在其移动设备上安装TikTok。如果不删除，用户将不得连接内网。”但美国国防部和海军的发言人都没有说明TikTok究竟构成了什么样的威胁。
尽管美国海军与陆战队共用一个内部网，在陆军正式发布对TikTok的禁令后，美军官方媒体Military.com联系陆战队和空军是否发布了禁令，但并未收到回应。
此次美国陆军正式禁止TikTok，相比之前的行动更进一步。路透社11月22日报道称，美国陆军士官司令部宣布，在穿着制服或执行公务时，禁止学员拍摄短视频或发布招聘启事。陆军部长瑞安·麦卡锡当时也表示，正在对TikTok展开安全评估。
去年11月，美国陆军开始使用TikTok征兵，反响良好。许多美军士兵成为了该应用的用户，美军相关视频播放量也节节攀升。《华盛顿邮报》报道称，目前“美国陆军”这一标签下的视频已有106亿次的点击量。Tiktok, the latest epicenter of the "Gen Z" Internet culture, is better known for being the place where viral memes and goofy videos took off, not a subject to be discussed alongside international politics.
That was until the U.S. government deemed the social network, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, a "national security" threat. The Pentagon this week banned the use of Tiktok by its personnel on government-owned phones.But just two months ago, U.S. Army recruiters thought the popular app was a useful way to reach out to the younger generation, amid calls by some lawmakers for a national security review. The service announced in September that it surpassed its recruiting goal for the fiscal year 2019, according to U.S. military and veteran organization Military.com.TikTok方面此前表示，其所有的用户数据完全位于中国境外，美国用户数据被储存在美国本土，并在新加坡进行备份。此外，该公司有一个专门的技术团队负责数据隐私和网络安全等问题。然而，包括参议院民主党领袖查克·舒默和共和党参议员马尔科·卢比奥、汤姆·柯顿在内的美国国会议员，却指责TikTok“威胁国家安全”，可能被用来“监视美国公民”。舒默还致信陆军部长麦卡锡，警告称：“使用TikTok，可能对军队人员的专业和个人能力造成潜在的损害”。CNN报道称，当时美国参议院司法委员会的“犯罪与恐怖主义小组”甚至还曾传唤TikTok公司高管，但被TikTok方面拒绝。《华盛顿邮报》表示，美国国防部一般不会对一个社交媒体发布政策措施。五角大楼发言人的声明中声称：“卸载TikTok并不会阻止已存在潜在危害的信息传播，但这将防止更多信息被收集。”报道评论称，美国海军、美国陆军相继发布的禁令和五角大楼的罕见通知，反映出了整个华盛顿对于TikTok根深蒂固的怀疑。CNN评论道，尽管TikTok并不是唯一一家引起美国怀疑的中国科技巨头，但华为并没有TikTok那种“病毒式传播”的现象。《纽约时报》援引手机应用分析公司Sensor Tower的数据称，去年11月，TikTok的下载量较上年同期增长了33%。在过去的一年里TikTok的下载量超过了7.5亿次，这比脸书和油管等应用的同期下载量高出了数千万。Tiktok responded to the concerns earlier with an official statement on its website, stating that the company's data centers are located entirely outside of China, including the U.S. and Singapore, and are not subjected to Chinese law.In regards to alleged censorship on behalf of the Chinese government, the company insists that it does not remove content based on sensitivities related to China. "We have never been asked by the Chinese government to remove any content and we would not do so if asked. Period," the statement reads, adding that its U.S. moderation team in California reviews content for adherence to U.S. policies and is not influenced by any foreign government, including the Chinese government.In its first transparency report released on December 2019, the company says that in the first half of 2019, the platform received no takedown or user information requests from China, where the app is not available.Known as the "overseas version" of its Chinese original Douyin, Tiktok is entirely independent of Douyin, a spokesperson from the Chinese team confirmed to CGTN.With over 1.5 billion users worldwide and 60 percent of active users under the age of 24, Tiktok has emerged as a highly successful social media app in recent years, surpassing big players like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram as the most downloaded app in Apple Store, in the first quarter of 2019. Its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance is now the world's most valuable startup.The U.S. has been going after some of China's biggest names in technology throughout last year. Led by hawkish senators like Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, U.S. policymakers launched a high-profile crackdown on telecom giant Huawei and accused Chinese firms left and right of spying for Beijing, while threatening U.S. allies against using China-built 5G network.Some experts believe China's tech industry has moved up the value chain. "China tech is going global, going mainstream, and shaking things up more than ever," said Rebecca Fannin, founder of technology consultancy Silicon Dragon, as quoted by Bloomberg. "More U.S. startups will follow China's business models."That, of course, did not escape notice. The Independent newspaper on November 14 published an article with the title "Instagram's new reels feature is almost an exact copy of Tiktok."But just like every other Chinese company that has achieved success beyond the country's borders, ByteDance has found itself in the whirlwind of America's economic war against China. Despite increasingly hostile rhetoric from the U.S. side, many in the Chinese tech industry have often looked up to the U.S. as their inspiration for entrepreneurship, particularly the country's value of the free market. Huawei's Ren Zhengfei even attributed his company's corporate culture to what he called "American spirit."However, as business interests continue to be sidelined by China-U.S. rivalry, as TechCrunch has noted, the market can only be less free from what it could be.