The UK has also decided to block TikTok from government devices due to security fears, following similar decisions by the US, Canada, Belgium, and the European Commission. The prohibition is effective right away.
Oliver Dowden, a minister in the Cabinet Office, has the following to say about it.
According to Dowden, TikTok is just the beginning of an evaluation that includes other applications as well. On government-owned devices, employees will soon be allowed to install third-party applications.
Outside of the app, the app is known to extract user data, which is a cause of concern for many Western countries. Government workers are free to install TikTok on their personal smartphones, but the ban only applies to government devices used for work-related activities involving sensitive information.
A TikTok spokesperson said that the company will try to work something out with the government because it thinks that the ban stems from a “fundamental misconception” and is “driven by wider geopolitics, in which TikTok and UK users play no part”.
