Britain will NOT ban government officials from using TikTok

Britain will not follow the US and EU in banning government officials from using TikTok, despite growing concerns over the security of the Chinese app.

The new science secretary, Michelle Donelan, said banning MPs and civil servants from using the popular social media platform would be a “very, very frank move” that would require more evidence to justify.

Last month, Canada became the latest Western power to ban TikTok on government-issued mobile devices amid concerns that China could obtain private data from its political and security targets. But the UK government has been hesitant to take action despite growing calls from senior MPs for restrictions on the app’s use.

Miss Donelan told the Politico website: “We have no evidence to suggest that it is necessary to ban people from using TikTok. That would be a very, very candid move that would require a substantial evidence base to do that.”

MPs are under pressure to stop using TikTok in case Beijing accesses sensitive smartphone data belonging to the app’s owner, ByteDance. Luke de Pulford, of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance for China, said: ‘The risks of TikTok are well known, and Canada, the US and the EU have banned it for good data security reasons.

Canada has become the latest Western country to ban its officials from the Chinese app

“The UK needs to wake up and stop dragging on.”

Labour’s Northern Ireland spokesman Peter Kyle said yesterday that he personally removed the app from this phone.

Last week, Tory MP Alicia Kearns, chair of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said ministers ‘shouldn’t have it’ [TikTok] on their phones’.

Mao Ning, spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said of the US ban: “We firmly oppose those wrong actions. How insecure can the biggest superpower in the world, such as the US, be so afraid of the favorite app of young people.’