TOKYO (Reuters) – A group of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers plans to compile a proposal next month urging the government to ban social networking services such as TikTok if they are used for disinformation campaigns, an LDP lawmaker said on Monday.
Many U.S. lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to ban the popular Chinese-owned social media app, alleging the app could be used for data collection, content censorship and harm to children’s mental health.
“If it’s verified that an app has been intentionally used by a certain party of a certain country for their influence operations with malice …, promptly halting the service should be considered,” Norihiro Nakayama told Reuters in an interview.
Nakayama, a senior member of a ruling party lawmakers’ group looking into ways to enhance Japan’s economic security, said the group plans to compile the recommendation next month, adding that the proposal will not be targeting at any particular platform.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Editing by Louise Heavens)
