UK Parliament suspends TikTok account over data security concerns

The British Parliament can no longer be found on TikTok. MPs wrote in a letter demanding the closure of the TikTok account due to data security risks. They feared that the data would end up in the hands of the Chinese government. that reports BBC in news. The British Parliament’s TikTok account has only been active for a few days.

Concerns about data transfer to China

Creating a TikTok account was a pilot initiative by the British Parliament to reach a younger audience. A number of MPs were “surprised and disappointed” with this decision. In a letter to both the House of Commons (board of the Public(on behalf of the House of Lords)House of Lords) expressed concerns about “significant” risks to data security.

Representatives said TikTok executives were unable to convince them “that the company can block the transfer of data to ByteDance, if the parent company requests”. They called for the account to be deleted so TikTok could provide “credible assurances” that no data could be delivered to China.

TikTok is owned by China’s ByteDance, which denies it is owned by the Chinese government. However, the lawmakers wrote: “The possibility of the Xi Jinping government’s access to personal data on our children’s phones should be cause for great concern.”

As a result of data security concerns, the British Parliament shut down the TikTok account earlier than planned. The account has been locked and all content removed.

Reply TikTok

The BBC I spoke to a TikTok spokeswoman. She described it as “disappointing” that Parliament is now unable to contact TikTok users in the UK. It also offered to reassure the concerned deputies. According to her, TikTok is willing to “clear inaccuracies about our platform.”

according to BBC TikTok has reached out to all MPs who signed the letter. The company wants a meeting where it can explain its data protection processes.

TikTok Privacy Policy

The British Parliament is not the first party to express concerns about TikTok. The platform is known for numerous violations of user privacy. There are also security concerns because TikTok is a Chinese company and the Chinese government exercises strict control over businesses in the country, among other things.

The service has previously been fined by the Dutch data protection authority for violating children’s privacy. TikTok recently postponed the introduction of a new privacy policy. Here, too, there have been concerns from several regulators about user privacy.