Tory MP warns users off ‘tech-totalitarian’ TikTok

Alicia Kearns says Beijing uses ‘data penetration’ to intimidate ‘those who sought refuge in the UK and around the world’.

Chinese diplomats scuffle with a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist outside the consulate in Manchester last October. Picture: AFP

The head of an influential parliamentary committee in Britain on Sunday advised people not to use the Chinese social media app TikTok because of data security concerns.

“There is a reason why China has this app,” Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, who chairs the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, told Sky News television. “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 more serious about protecting ourselves.”

Ms Kearns referred in passing to the weekend, when the US shot down a Chinese balloon off its Atlantic coast. China has denied US allegations that it was being used for espionage purposes. She said the bigger concern was “data penetration” via Chinese companies, and the way Beijing was using that data to intimidate “those who sought refuge in the UK and around the world”.

Asked if she was saying people should delete TikTok from their phones, she answered: “Without question ... It is not worth having that vulnerability on your phone.”

Ms Kearns has been a long-term critic of China’s intelligence activities and what she says is its abuse of technology to that end.

A spokesman for TikTok responded to Ms Kearns’s allegations on Sunday. “TikTok is enjoyed by millions of people across the UK, and we want to be clear that they can trust us with their data. We’re taking steps like storing UK user data in our data centre operations in Ireland, starting this year; further reducing employee access to data; and minimising data flows outside of Europe,” he said.

Points of contention between London and Beijing include China’s crackdown in the former British colony of Hong Kong, and Britain’s refusal to grant Huawei access to its 5G network because of security concerns.

Last October, a British-based Hong Kong pro-democracy activist accused Chinese diplomats of assaulting him during a protest outside China’s consulate in Manchester. Six Chinese envoys left Britain and returned to China. Ms Kearns accused them of having “fled the UK like cowards, making clear their guilt”.

AFP