Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden told Parliament that
the ban applies with immediate effect to work phones and other devices used by
government ministers and civil servants. He described the ban as a
"precautionary move," and said it does not apply to personal phones
and devices.
"Given the particular risk around government devices,
which may contain sensitive information, it is both prudent and proportionate
to restrict the use of certain apps, particularly when it comes to apps where a
large amount of data can be stored and accessed," Dowden told British
lawmakers.
The U.S. government mandated last month that employees of
federal agencies have to delete TikTok from all government-issued mobile
devices. Congress, the White House, U.S. armed forces and more than half of
U.S. states already had banned the app.
The European Union, Belgium and others have also temporarily
banned the app from employee phones.
The moves were prompted by growing concerns that TikTok's
parent company, ByteDance, would give user data such as browsing history and
location to the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on
its behalf.
The company has insisted that such concerns are based on
"misinformation" and said it was taking steps to boost protection of
user data from the U.K. and Europe.
"We believe these bans have been based on fundamental
misconceptions and driven by wider geopolitics, in which TikTok and our
millions of users in the U.K, play no part," the company said. "We
remain committed to working with the government to address any concerns but
should be judged on facts and treated equally to our competitors."
China accused the United States on Thursday of spreading
disinformation and suppressing TikTok following reports that the Biden
administration was calling for the short-form video service's Chinese owners to
sell their stakes in the popular app.
Last year, Britain's Parliament shut down its TikTok
account, which was intended to reach younger audiences, just days after its
launch after lawmakers raised concerns.
0 comments:
Post a Comment