Rishi Sunak faces calls to ban TikTok use by government officials

theguardian.com:

Rishi Sunak has been urged to ban government officials from using TikTok in line with moves by the EU and US, amid growing cybersecurity fears over China.

Officials in Europe and the US have been told to limit the use of the Chinese-owned social video app over concerns that data can be accessed by Beijing.

This week the European Commission decided to suspend the use of TikTok on devices issued to staff and even personal phones if they have official apps installed, following Washington’s ban last year on federal employees using the app on work devices.

However, the prime minister is currently resisting pressure to bar parliamentary staff and MPs from using TikTok, which has become increasingly popular among UK politicians.

A No 10 spokesperson said he was “not aware” of any ban on Downing Street staff using the platform.

“We [No 10] have got a TikTok account, but I don’t think we’ve put anything on it for a little while now,” he said. “It’s for individual departments and ministers to choose which social media platforms they want to use.”

On Thursday, the Conservative MP Luke Evans posted a 48-second video on the app, showing his 41,000-strong following what it is like going through security to get into No 10.

Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, told the Guardian: “We’ve now seen both the EU and US take decisive action on TikTok over security concerns: the acquisition of our personal data by a hostile state. We run the risk of becoming a tech security laggard amongst free and open nations.

“The government needs to reconsider its policies and move to ban government officials and parliamentary staff from installing the app on any mobile phones utilised for work. We need an informed discussion across