UK Parliament closes TikTok account after concerns from MPs

BET À DAY

The British Parliament on Wednesday closed its pilot account on TikTok, intended to reach a young audience, after concerns expressed by some MPs about the security of data on this social network belonging to a China-based company.  

“Based on feedback from members” of parliament, “we are closing the parliament's TikTok pilot account earlier than planned,” said a spokesperson for the institution. . The account, launched with the aim of reaching a young audience, had its content removed.

TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is based in China, where the social network is not available.

In a letter to the presidents of both houses of parliament, revealed by the site Politico, deputies sanctioned by Beijing for having described as “genocide” the treatment inflicted by Beijing on the Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang have protested the opening of this account.

“The prospect of the Xi Jinping regime gaining access to the personal data of our children's phones is a major cause for concern,” they wrote. .

One of the social network's managers in Europe, Theo Bertham, assured MPs last month that “never” had TikTok been asked to provide user data to the Chinese government and that the network would deny such a request.

A TikTok spokeswoman expressed disappointment that the Parliament forfeits the opportunity to be connected “with the millions of users who use TikTok in the UK” and reiterated its offer to “reassure those Members of Parliament who have raised concerns and clarified inaccuracies about our platform”.