NOT SECURE

Amazon Walks Back Order for Employees to Delete TikTok Due to Security Concerns

Amazon says it mistakenly told its 500,000 employees to delete the Chinese-owned social media platform from their phones.

Amazon said it mistakenly sent an email to its 500,000 employees ordering them to delete TikTok from their phones due to “security risks” associated with the Chinese-owned social media platform. The New York Times initially reported Friday that the internal email said employees who didn’t remove the video-sharing app by Friday would no longer have mobile access to their Amazon email. However, Amazon later told Reuters that the email was sent to employees in error and there was no change to its policy on TikTok.

The wildly popular platform is owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance, raising questions over whether it’s secure. In a statement, TikTok said user security was “of the utmost importance” and that it was committed to user privacy. “While Amazon did not communicate to us before sending their email, and we still do not understand their concerns, we welcome a dialogue,” the statement said.