London – In the midst of the new prime minister election campaign, where tensions between the UK and China were on the agenda of the electoral debates, the UK Parliament’s account on TikTok lasted only a week for fear of spying.
This Wednesday (3) announced that the account was shut down after legislators questioned the risk of Chinese authorities accessing its data because TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
Access to user data by ByteDance members in China is not a conspiracy theory. It was accepted by Shou Zi Chew, the platform’s own CEO in the US, in a letter sent to a committee of US senators a few weeks ago.
Sanctioned lawmakers worried about spying risk on TikTok
As announced by parliament, the idea of using TikTok was aimed at bringing together young people, many of whom have been disconnected from politics.
The lawmakers didn’t like it. Seven of them have already faced sanctions from the country. England and China are constantly exchanging barbarians. Both suspended broadcasts of their own state television stations (BBC and Russia Today) in their respective regions.
But leaving TikTok is not a national policy. The government has an official TikTok account, Downing Street 10 (called the seat of government and residence of the prime minister).
When reporting the withdrawal, a parliamentary spokesperson suggested that it was just an experiment.
“Based on member feedback, we are closing the UK Parliament TikTok ‘pilot’ account sooner than planned.
“The account was a pilot initiative as we tested the platform as a way to reach younger audiences with parliamentary content.”
The account has been blocked and its content has been deleted.
Those searching for Parliament UK on TikTok “this account is now closed. You can find us at www.parliament.uk.”
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News site Politico has accessed a correspondence sent by a group of parliamentarians to the leaders of the two chambers that make up the Parliament – the Common and the Lords – expressing concern over the possibility that “the Xi Jinping government has access”. personal data on children’s phones”.
The authors argue that despite being questioned by the business selection committee, TikTok executives “have not reassured lawmakers that the company can block data transfer to mainland China.”
Nus Ghani from the Conservative Party, who signed the letter calling for the account to be closed, tweeted the letter after Parliament turned it away, thanking the leaders of both houses for “protecting our values and protecting our data”. He added that “common sense prevailed”.
TikTok Update.
Thank you@CommonsSpeaker&@LordSpeakerto uphold our values and protect our data.
Common sense prevails.
@ipacglobal @MPIainDS @timloughton @CommonsBEIS @TomTugendhat @lukedepulford pic.twitter.com/8ecjX0yaKk— Nus Ghani MP (@Nus_Ghani) August 3, 2022
TikTok admins try to bypass
“We were not asked to provide TikTok user data to the Chinese government, and even if we were asked to do so, we would not do it,” Theo Bertram, vice president of government affairs and public policy for the app in Europe, said in July.
The same speech was also used by the CEO of TikTok in the USA against the risk of espionage by China.
In the letter sent to US senators in response to inquiries as part of the parliamentary committee, Shou Zi Chew wrote that they would not hand over the data. However, he admitted that he was seen by the company in China.
“Personnel outside the US, including employees based in China, can access US TikTok user data subject to a set of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our US-based security team.”
Despite the denials, the company is unlikely to refuse if the Chinese government requests it. All Chinese companies are government owned or heavily controlled.
And China’s history of using social networks to follow the footsteps or harass activists and journalists has been condemned by NGOs and even the platforms themselves.
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source: Noticias
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