UK bans TikTok on government devices, following US and EU

Christopher Hutton March 16, 10:13 AMMarch 16, 10:13 AM Video Embed

The United Kingdom announced that it would ban the installation of TikTok onto government devices months after Congress passed a similar ban.

Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden stated that, following a review of the app by British cybersecurity experts, the country would ban the app from government-owned devices due to the app’s privacy practices and its affiliations with the Chinese government.

WHITE HOUSE TO TIKTOK OWNERS: SELL STAKES IN APP OR FACE NATIONAL BAN

“The security of sensitive government information must come first, so today, we are banning this app on government devices. The use of other data-extracting apps will be kept under review,” Dowden said in a press statement.

The ban will only affect government devices and not personal devices owned by officials, Dowden said. Exemptions for using TikTok on a government-owned device will be available but will “only be granted by security teams on a case-by-case basis, with ministerial clearance as appropriate, and with security mitigations put in place,” the government said.

The U.K. ban is being imposed months after Congress passed a ban on installing the app in Dec. 2022. Lawmakers are also debating what legislation is necessary to restrict TikTok’s presence in the United States and have submitted several bills to ban the app.

A bill from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) would outright ban TikTok. A bill from Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and John Thune (R-SD) would not explicitly ban the app but would provide additional powers to the Commerce Department to review China-affiliated apps to determine if they are a legitimate security threat.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The European Union also banned employees from installing the app on corporate and personal devices.

TikTok has tried to mitigate these bans in the U.S. through “Project Texas,” an effort to ensure U.S. data is safe and secure. The White House told TikTok recently that these efforts would not be enough and that its parent company, ByteDance, would have to sell its stakes in the company or face a national ban.

© 2023 Washington Examiner

NewsRead More