Egypt MP calls on government to monitor TikTok app

Egypt parliament’s undersecretary, Maysa Atwa, yesterday called on the government to monitor TiKTok – a hugely popular short-form video application.

In an official request, Atwa warned the Egyptian interior and communications ministers against what she described as “the use of smartphone applications by terrorist groups to spread their ideas.”

“Terrorist groups have taken advantage of TikTok’s prevalence among youth and started displaying its operations, including a video on how to install a homemade bomb,” Atwa said.

The MP urged the Egyptian government “to ask TikTok’s owner to delete any videos that support any terrorist groups and that promote their destructive ideas.”

READ: Egypt to build 6,000km Sudan-Egypt railway

“The Egyptian government must draw the security authorities’ attention in Egypt to those types of mobile applications,” the parliamentarian pointed out.

TikTok allowed users to record and upload short video clips and was the third most popular downloaded app in the first quarter of this year. One in three users is under the age of 18.

Over the past 12 months, it has been downloaded more than 750 million times, more than Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat, according to the California-based research firm “Sensor Tower.”

The Chinese-owned social media app has reportedly removed dozens of accounts pushing Daesh propaganda in breach of its terms of service.