TikTok could be banned in the UK, security minister suggests

Tom Tugendhat, the UK's security minister, has not ruled out a ban on TikTok due to security concerns about the Chinese-owned app. Tugendhat said on Tuesday that he is waiting for the National Cyber Security Centre to review the "hugely important question" before making a decision. Under pressure from senior MPs, Rishi Sunak hinted that Britain may follow the lead of the United States and the European Union in banning the social media app from government phones and devices. 

The prime minister stated that the UK will "look at what our allies are doing," referring to Washington and the European Commission's bans on TikTok on employee phones. Tugendhat was asked if he would go further and order a full ban on the app in the UK, similar to what India and former US President Donald Trump have done. "I don't have it, and the prime minister asked me a little while ago to defend the leading democracy taskforce, and as part of that, we're looking at the various threats to parliamentarians but also to journalists," he told Times Radio. "I've asked the National Cyber Security Centre to look into the various different apps people have on their phones and the implications for them." Pressed whether this means there could be a full ban on the app, he said: "It will be addressed with the challenges we face, with the threats we face. I'm not going to respond until I know what the risks are." Trump's ban, which was challenged in court and never went into effect, was revoked by his successor in the White House, Joe Biden. Tugendhat, a Conservative Party hawk on China, cited the Indian government's ban on many Chinese-owned apps. "What certainly is clear is that TikTok is now a news source for many young people, and, just as it's quite right we know who owns the news sources in the UK... it's important we know who owns the news sources that are feeding into our phones," he said on Sky News. 

What are the concerns about TikTok?

ByteDance, a Chinese company, owns TikTok. The social media platform's security concerns stem from its Chinese ownership and what this means for users' data. Other popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube, collect similar amounts of data, but they are all founded in the United States, making TikTok unique among mainstream apps. TikTok has long claimed that it does not share data with China, but Chinese intelligence legislation requires companies to help the Communist Party when asked. Critics are concerned that the policy will expose Western data to Beijing. In an interview with Sky News last month, Alicia Kearns, Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton and Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, advocated for Britons to delete the app. "Our data is a critical vulnerability, and China is constructing a tech totalitarian state on the back of our data," she explained. Last year, Parliament's TikTok account was shut down after MPs raised concerns about the firm's ties to China.

By Covenantblog