Posted on July 2, 2020 at 3:21 PM
Anonymous Hackers Warn Users to Delete “Chinese Spyware” TikTok
The famous loosely affiliated hacking syndicate known as Anonymous hackers has joined those campaigning against TikTok. Although it is difficult to pin this group to a particular domain or central operational base, one of the group’s linked accounts is mounting a serious campaign against the TikTok app.
The group has been launching its campaign against TikTok app for the past few months, but the campaign has now gained prominence following negative events about the app recently.
Anonymous says TikTok is a Chinese spyware
Today, the Anonymous hacking account tweeted a message that reads, “Delete TikTok now,” The group also revealed the malware is operated by the Chinese government in a huge spying operation on individuals, corporations, and government institutions.
The account was also corroborating the report of an engineer who posted a message on Reddit claiming to have “reverse-engineered” TikTok to discover a whole lot of privacy and security issues.
However, there is no proof yet to determine the authenticity of the claims, and when TikTok was approached for comments on the situation, the company declined to comment.
The initial issue that prompted Anonymous to target TikTok seems to be an act of “misrepresentation” of Anonymous on TikTok. The TikTok Tweeter account tweeted that “Anonymous has no TikTok account, and added on the 6th of June that Anonymous “is an App created as spyware by the Chinese government.”
Anonymous has been hiding under the radar until about a month ago when it made headlines after the killing of George Floyd. The group staged its protest by issuing a threat to expose the wrongful acts of the Minneapolis Police Department unless those officers responsible for Floyd’s murder were prosecuted. The group also posted a video on Facebook, concealing their identity in the video.
Since then, the group has been in the news regularly. There was a recent report on DDoS attacks on police service websites as well as the infiltration of radio systems and hacking of data. However, as it has been with Anonymous, it’s difficult to pin the attack on any k own individual or organization because Anonymous is a loose affiliation.
On a positive note, it’s the first time in a long while various nations and groups are uniting for the same cause. The U.S. is also strongly against TikTok. Already, their country has been security conscious of anything from China.
TikTok getting into more trouble
Allegations of data censorship and mishandling have trailed Chinese viral video giant in recent times, despite the progress it has made during the lockdown. But it seems the company’s problem is still lingering and not about to go any time soon. There was a backlash against the company as Apple’s iOS 14 caught the app spying on its users and accessing their clipboards secretly.
Subsequently, India banned the app and 58 other Chinese apps. But it’s not known whether India’s ban on the Chinese apps on June 29 was in response to the iOS security backlash or the decision had already been taken before then.
But currently, TikTok is no longer available in the Play Store and App Store in India, which is the app’s biggest market. TikTok can even fall into more problems as users in other countries are lodging their complaints about the app’s privacy infringement issues. Other countries may soon follow India to ban the app in their countries, including the U.S.
The message could expose TikTok to hacking risks
It’s not clear whether the company will be exposed by hackers after the social media backlash. But as is the case with the hacking community, one of their members has made a rallying call against an organization.
As a result, there may be more hackers who would be interested in trying their hands to expose TikTok even further. It won’t surprise anyone if claims of DDoS website attacks or hacks come after Anonymous has called TikTok out.
