Users are being urged to delete the popular video-sharing app TikTok amid concerns over how personal data is being used by the Chinese company that owns it.
Tory MP Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, said users should “without question” delete the app from their devices, suggesting TikTok is linked to China’s efforts to build a “tech totalitarian state”.
For as long as the app has been popular, there have been concerns about its links to China because of its parent company ByteDance.
Critics say the personal data collected by the company could then be passed on to the Chinese Government.
‘Get off TikTok, Sophy!’
Conservative MP @aliciakearns is the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, she claims China is building a “tech-totalitarian state off the back of our data” and advises @sophyridgesky to delete the app. #Ridge https://t.co/ZoMhCmTrtv
Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/tyRRLm6bhA
— Sophy Ridge on Sunday & The Take (@RidgeOnSunday) February 5, 2023
Speaking after the United States shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon, Kearns told Sky’s, Sophy Ridge: “We are being naive.
“TikTok gave evidence to my committee where they said there was no way that individuals working in China could get access to the data of Britons.
“But what we’ve now seen is that people working in China for TikTok hacked into European data so it could track down the source of a journalist.
“Because what TikTok does is it gives away the data that makes you most vulnerable: who are you friends with; what are your interests; what are the interests you have that you may not want publicly disclosed; who you are having private conversations with; the locations you go to.
“There’s a reason why China has this app. There’s a reason why they’re buying up gay dating apps.
“Our data is a key vulnerability and China is building a tech totalitarian state on the back of our data.
“So we have to get far…
