British Parliament Banned TikTok
On Thursday, the British parliament joined the government in outlawing TikTok, denying legislators access to the Chinese-owned video app through its internet infrastructure.
Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive of TikTok, made the revelation as he testified before a hostile US Congress regarding the company’s supposed connections to the communist regime in Beijing.
The House of Commons and House of Lords announced that the application “would be disabled from all parliamentary devices and the wider parliamentary network,” adding that “Cyber security is a high priority for parliament.”
Dedicated TikTok users in the legislature, such Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps, will still be able to access the app on their personal phones, but not when linked to the building’s WiFi.
In line with actions taken by the European Union and the United States, the UK announced last week a security restriction of TikTok on devices used by the government.
Shapps, who has over 14,000 TikTok followers, declared he would abide by the prohibition on his government phone but continue to use the app on his personal devices.
The autonomous government of Scotland stated Thursday that it would also prohibit the app on its official devices.
ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, and the Chinese government have scoffed at security concerns regarding the application and criticized Western restrictions as being politically driven.
