Washington
CNN
—
The United Kingdom banned TikTok from official government devices on Thursday, including to comparable restrictions imposed by allies in Canada, the European Union and the United States.
The social media app shouldn’t be extensively utilized by UK officers, based on a government announcement, however the measure displays considerations about TikTok’s hyperlinks to China by its dad or mum firm, ByteDance, and the likelihood that the Chinese government may stress the businesses handy over customers’ private data.
“This is a proportionate move based on a specific risk with government devices,” UK Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden instructed lawmakers Thursday.
In an announcement Thursday, TikTok expressed disappointment on the determination.
“We believe these bans have been based on fundamental misconceptions and driven by wider geopolitics, in which TikTok, and our millions of users in the UK, play no part,” a spokesperson mentioned. “We remain committed to working with the government to address any concerns but should be judged on facts and treated equally to our competitors.”
The firm has mentioned it’s voluntarily working to handle the safety considerations by taking technical and bureaucratic measures to wall off US and EU person information from its international operations. It has additionally mentioned that it has not acquired any request from the Chinese government for person data and would resist such calls.
In the assertion Thursday, TikTok mentioned: “We have begun implementing a comprehensive plan to further protect our European user data, which includes storing UK user data in our European data centres and tightening data access controls, including third-party independent oversight of our approach.”
The UK announcement comes a day after TikTok mentioned the US government had requested the corporate’s Chinese house owners promote their shares or else danger a ban.
In December, President Joe Biden signed laws prohibiting TikTok on federal government devices, becoming a member of what has develop into an inventory of greater than half of US states.
US lawmakers have proposed increasing the Biden administration’s authority to enact a nationwide ban on TikTok. A bipartisan group of senators this month unveiled laws that may give the Commerce Department broad latitude to evaluation and ban applied sciences linked to international adversaries, a proposal the White House shortly welcomed.