Britain’s parliament will block TikTok on all units on its community following the same ban on authorities units, turning into the most recent Western establishment to bar the Chinese language-owned video app over safety issues.
A TikTok spokesperson referred to as the motion “misguided”, saying it was based mostly on elementary misconceptions in regards to the firm.
“Following the federal government’s determination to ban TikTok from authorities units, the commissions of each the Home of Commons and Lords have determined that TikTok might be blocked from all parliamentary units and the broader parliamentary community,” a parliament spokesperson mentioned.
Britain final week banned the Chinese language-owned video app on authorities telephones.
“Cyber safety is a prime precedence for parliament,” the spokesperson added.
America, Canada, Belgium and the European Fee have already banned the app from official units.
“We’re dissatisfied that, regardless of our requests, we’ve not been supplied any alternative to deal with issues and solely ask to be judged on info and handled equally to our rivals,” the TikTok spokesperson mentioned in an announcement.
The spokesperson added that the corporate had begun implementing a plan to additional shield its European consumer knowledge, which incorporates storing UK consumer knowledge in its European knowledge centres and tightening knowledge entry controls.
TikTok has come underneath growing scrutiny on account of fears that consumer knowledge from the app owned by Beijing-based firm ByteDance might find yourself within the fingers of the Chinese language authorities, undermining Western safety pursuits.
The British parliament’s ban was introduced as TikTok’s chief govt confronted questions from US lawmakers who’re satisfied the app ought to be barred for being a possible nationwide safety menace to the US.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
