Last week, the New York Times published an article claiming that the ToTok app, a messaging app used by millions of people in the United Arab Emirates, it was actually a tool of the UAE government to spy on to its citizens.
Within hours of publishing this article, both Apple and Google launched an investigation of the application code and proceeded to remove it from their respective app stores. Rather than follow the proper channels, ToTok founder Giacomo Ziani has posted a tweet requesting that they reconsider their decision.
Message to @Apple and @Google from our Co-Founder.@tim_cook @sundarpichai #totok #apple #google pic.twitter.com/soWwMJxgj9
- ToTok (@ToTokMessenger) December 27, 2019
In this message, Ziani claims that Apple and Google's unilateral decision is hurting the company and it has put at risk all the efforts that the company has made to achieve the success that very few start-ups achieve with an application. Ziani also claims that ToTok is not associated with any government, be it the United Arab Emirates China or the United States.
Ziani adds that user privacy and data protection have always been your top priority and he does not quite understand how after having been analyzed by the Google and Apple supervision team, and meeting all the requirements, it has been withdrawn for the publication of an article.
The origin of the problem
WhatsApp like Telegram and other messaging applications are prohibited and blocked in the United Arab Emirates, ToTok being the only messaging application that works without any problem in the country, which obviously gives a lot to think about.
The original New York Times report stated that ToTok had been created by officials of the government of the United Arab Emirates to track citizens from both their country and abroad. Unlike Telegram or WhatsApp, ToTok does not mention whether it uses end-to-end encryption for messages, so its founder's statement to take the privacy of its users seriously does not make any sense.
