US & Canada government TikTok bans: BBC -6 Minute English | by 700 Eth | May, 2023 | Medium
30 days to remove TikTok. The White House bans the app from government devices. This is News Review from BBC Learning English, I'm Neil… …and I'm Beth. Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about this story. And don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like this video and try the quiz on the website. Now, the story.
The US and now Canada have banned, TikTok from government phones. They are concerned the Chinese app could be a security risk. Chinese authorities have criticised the move, saying it's an overreaction. You've been looking at the headlines, Beth. What's the vocabulary? We have ‘purging', ‘citing' and ‘overstretching'.
This is News Review from BBC Learning English. Let's have a look at our first headline. This is from Reuters… So, the White House has ordered all US government agencies to remove TikTok from its work devices and the word we're looking at is ‘purging'. Now, purging is a verb and in this case it means to remove something or someone from something else, particularly because it might be harmful.
Now, here in the headline it's saying that TikTok is seen as a risk. So it's seen as something that could be harmful. Yeah, and the word ‘purge' and ‘purging' is used in a number of contexts. But what they all have in common is this idea of removing harm or what is seen by some as harmful. So, the police might purge crime.
They want to get crime out of a city or a company might want to purge waste. That means stop wasting things so they can make more money. That's right. Now, ‘purge' can also be used to talk about removing people, particularly from an organisation if the leaders don't agree with them. Now, imagine there's a new government and the previous leader's supporters are purged or removed from the organisation.
Yeah, and the word ‘purged' there is negative — you know when somebody uses the word ‘purge' that they don't agree with what's happening. Let's look at that again. Let's have a look at our next headline. This is from NPR… So, this story is from Canada, but it's similar to the one from the US — the Canadian government has decided to ban TikTok from its government devices.
The word we're looking at is ‘citing'. Yes, now ‘citing' is a verb and it means giving a reason for doing something. Now, the Canadian government have said that security concerns are the reason for banning TikTok from these work devices. Now, this is a little bit formal, isn't it? But that's why it's used more in written English than spoken English.
Yes, and you will see this word of lot in academic writing. So, for example, when you're writing a university essay, you have to cite other academics and research to construct your argument, and make it stronger. Yeah, and there's a noun for this, which is ‘a citation'. Yeah. Let's look at that again.
Let's have a look at our next headline. This is from Al Arabiya.. So, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has criticised this decision by the US. The word we're looking at is ‘overstretch'. and the second part of that word is ‘stretch', which means to pull something. It does, yeah.
If you stretch say your clothes for example, you pull them, and if you overstretch them, then you pull them so far that they become too big or they rip and get a hole in them. Yes, so that's the literal meaning. Here we are talking figuratively, but it contains that same idea of trying to get too much from something and it becomes damaged because of that. So, for example, if you try to work more than you can, you can be overstretched and you are, in a way, damaged.
Yeah, that's right. So, in relation to this story, and this headline, China is saying that the US is overstretching or exaggerating the idea of national security being a problem. And that is damaging this Chinese company. OK, let's look at that again. We've had ‘purging' — removing something considered harmful.
‘Citing' — giving the reason for something. And ‘overstretching' — getting something to do more than it can. And to learn even more vocabulary like this, while still discussing the world of social media, click on this video now! And click here to subscribe to our channel so you never miss another video.
Thanks for joining us. Bye. Bye.
