The UK Parliament has closed down its TikTok account days after its launch as MPs raised issues over allegations that knowledge could possibly be shared with the Chinese authorities.
Numerous British MPs, together with these sanctioned by China final 12 months, collectively wrote to the Speakers of each the House of Commons and House of Lords to name for the account which went dwell on July 27 to be taken down.
The lead writer of the letter, Pakistani-origin Conservative Party MP Nus Ghani, tweeted the correspondence, which mentioned that TikTok executives “were unable to reassure MPs that the company could prevent data transfer”.
“Based on members’ feedback, we are closing the pilot UK Parliament TikTok account earlier than we had planned,” a Parliament spokesperson mentioned.
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“The account was a pilot initiative while we tested the platform as a way of reaching younger audiences with relevant content about Parliament,” the spokesperson mentioned.
MPs who signed the joint letter of objection included Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and a former Tory management candidate, and Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative Party chief who had been sanctioned by Beijing final 12 months as a tit-for-tat retaliation over the UK authorities’s sanctions towards Chinese officers for alleged human rights violations towards its Uyghur minorities in Xinjiang province.
“The prospect of [Chinese Premier] Xi Jinping’s government having access to personal data on our children’s phones ought to be a cause for major concern,” the letter reads.
TikTok, whose mum or dad firm is China-based ByteDance, denies Chinese authorities hyperlinks and claims that each one knowledge is saved within the US and Singapore, which might transfer to Ireland in 2023 when a brand new knowledge centre opens. It insists that “the TikTok platform does not operate in China and we have never provided user data to the Chinese government”.
“While it is disappointing that Parliament will no longer be able to connect with the millions of people who use TikTok in the UK, we reiterate the offer to reassure those members of Parliament who raised concerns and clarify any inaccuracies about our platform,” a TikTok spokesperson mentioned.
The social media platform additionally identified that many UK authorities departments and politicians proceed to make use of TikTok, together with Number 10 Downing Street and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.
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