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TikTok could find itself in the crosshairs of UK authorities as they consider whether the video-sharing app should be banned.
Security minister Tom Tugendhat told Sky News he had asked the National Cyber Security Centre to look into the Chinese-owned platform, which has more than one billion users worldwide.
Despite its popularity, it has come under heightened scrutiny in Europe and the US over its links to Beijing – with concerns that it could be used to collect user data en masse.
Sky News contacted TikTok about the increasingly hardline approaches, as the UK mulls following its allies in banning the app from government devices.
A spokesperson said they would be “disappointed” by such a move.
“Similar decisions elsewhere have been based on misplaced fears and seemingly driven by wider geopolitics, but we remain committed to working with the government to address any concerns,” he said.
“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.”
Here’s where action has already been taken.
US
Politicians in Congress have been ordered to remove TikTok from their work phones over data privacy fears.
They have also been stopped from downloading it in future, with the House of Representatives’ cybersecurity experts having deemed it to be a “high risk to users”.
Some want the measures to go even further, with a full nationwide ban being mooted. Republicans and Democrats joined forces late last year to unveil bipartisan legislation that would enforce such a nuclear option.
The bill would block “any social media company in, or under the influence of” China and other hostile countries.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which is based in Beijing. It has described the legislation as politically motivated and has denied ever sharing data with the Chinese government.
The…
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