TikTok Banned On UK Government Phones
The UK government has made the same move as the U.S. by banning TikTok on ministers and civil servants’ phones.
Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden delivered a statement in the Houses of Parliament in the past few minutes announcing the ban, which comes a few weeks after the U.S. Senate mandated that all federate employees delete the Chinese-owned social media app from government-issued mobile phones. The U.S. is currently threatening a nationwide TikTok ban unless owner ByteDance divests the app, according to reports earlier this week, but Dowden stressed the UK TikTok ban will only apply to government devices.
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Although ByteDance has strongly denied these reports, TikTok has faced allegations it hands users’ data to the Chinese government, and today’s move follows a review from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre.
Dowden described the TikTok government ban as “good cyber hygiene.”
“Our security must always come first,” he added. “Given the particular risk around government devices that may contain sensitive information, it is prudent and proportionate to restrict the use of certain apps, particularly where large amounts of data can be stored and accessed.”
There will be exemptions to the government TikTok ban, examined on a “case-by-case basis,” Dowden added, and he also announced the government will move to a system whereby phones will only be able to access third-party apps that are on a pre-approved list.
The likes of Canada, Belgium and the European Union have all taken similar action to the UK and U.S.
TikTok said earlier this week that bans are based on “misplaced fears and seemingly driven by wider geopolitics”, adding that it would be “disappointed by such a move” in the UK.
The BBC, however, has been pushing its journalists to use the platform more regularly as a way of connecting with younger audiences, a diktat that alarmed some insiders when they spoke with Deadline earlier this year, while senior Conservative MPs have since urged the corporation to reconsider its focus.
Last week, Danish public broadcaster DR advised employees to stop using the app.
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