Westminster joins the rush to pull the plug on TikTok

MPs, staff and guests will no longer be able to access the video-sharing platform on parliament’s wi-fi.

Parliamentary TikTokers such as Energy Secretary Grant Shapps will still be able to post videos using their personal devices via a mobile phone network. Picture: AFP

The British parliament has banned TikTok from its estate and devices as the app faces increasing global scrutiny over links to the Chinese state.

MPs, staff and guests will no longer be able to access the video-sharing platform on parliament’s wi-fi and employees cannot use it on their work devices.

The move represents a further tightening of restrictions on the app by officials across the UK.

Scotland on Thursday announced a TikTok ban on government devices.

The bans were prompted by a security review carried out by the National Cyber Security Centre, a division of GCHQ.

Parliamentary TikTokers such as Energy Secretary Grant Shapps will still be able to post videos using their personal devices via a mobile phone network.

ByteDance started in China and has a substantial base in Beijing, leading to fears the app is subject to Beijing’s security laws, which can force Chinese companies to hand over data.

TikTok contends it would refuse to hand over data and that ByteDance is not as Chinese as its critics make out. It is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and 60 per cent-owned by global companies.

TikTok is also spending billions to try to ring-fence its data in the US and Europe with third-party oversight.

A report submitted to a select committee of Australia’s Senate this week, however, claims ByteDance has extensive connections to the Chinese state.

Researchers claim to show how the Chinese Communist Party and state agencies “have extended their ties into ByteDance to the point that the company can no longer be accurately described as a private enterprise”.

Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission, described the report as “the most comprehensive exploration yet of the CCP’s ties to TikTok.

The 113-page document details the CCP’s controls and its surveillance and propaganda aims, which contradict TikTok’s public statements”.

Mr Carr was appointed by Donald Trump, who sought to ban TikTok when he was president.

In Britain, commissions that run both the House of Commons and the Lords cited security concerns when they decided to impose the ban across the Palace of Westminster in London. A spokesman for parliament said TikTok “will be blocked from all parliamentary devices and the wider parliamentary network”.

TikTok called parliament’s move “misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions about our company”.

“TikTok is enjoyed by millions of people in the UK, and potentially depriving users from access to and engagement with their representatives is a self-defeating step, especially in our shared fight against misinformation,” a spokesman said.

The Times