Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeWorldU.Ok. bans TikTok on authorities telephones over safety worries : NPR

U.Ok. bans TikTok on authorities telephones over safety worries : NPR


The icon for the video sharing TikTok app is seen on a smartphone on Feb. 28. British authorities mentioned Thursday that they’re banning the Chinese language-owned app from authorities cellphones on safety grounds.

Matt Slocum/AP


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Matt Slocum/AP


The icon for the video sharing TikTok app is seen on a smartphone on Feb. 28. British authorities mentioned Thursday that they’re banning the Chinese language-owned app from authorities cellphones on safety grounds.

Matt Slocum/AP

LONDON — British authorities mentioned Thursday that they’re banning the Chinese language-owned video-sharing app TikTok from authorities cellphones on safety grounds, following comparable strikes by the U.S. and European Union.

Cupboard Workplace minister Oliver Dowden informed Parliament that the ban applies with speedy impact to work telephones and different units utilized by authorities ministers and civil servants. He described the ban as a “precautionary transfer,” and mentioned it doesn’t apply to private telephones and units.

“Given the actual threat round authorities units, which can comprise delicate data, it’s each prudent and proportionate to limit using sure apps, significantly relating to apps the place a considerable amount of information may be saved and accessed,” Dowden informed British lawmakers.

The U.S. authorities mandated final month that workers of federal businesses should delete TikTok from all government-issued cellular units. Congress, the White Home, U.S. armed forces and greater than half of U.S. states already had banned the app.

The European Union, Belgium and others have additionally briefly banned the app from worker telephones.

The strikes have been prompted by rising issues that TikTok’s father or mother firm, ByteDance, would give consumer information corresponding to looking historical past and site to the Chinese language authorities, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf.

The corporate has insisted that such issues are primarily based on “misinformation” and mentioned it was taking steps to spice up safety of consumer information from the U.Ok. and Europe.

“We imagine these bans have been primarily based on basic misconceptions and pushed by wider geopolitics, during which TikTok and our tens of millions of customers within the U.Ok, play no half,” the corporate mentioned. “We stay dedicated to working with the federal government to deal with any issues however needs to be judged on details and handled equally to our opponents.”

China accused the US on Thursday of spreading disinformation and suppressing TikTok following studies that the Biden administration was calling for the short-form video service’s Chinese language house owners to promote their stakes within the fashionable app.

Final yr, Britain’s Parliament shut down its TikTok account, which was meant to succeed in youthful audiences, simply days after its launch after lawmakers raised issues.

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