Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre Assessing TikTok, Security Minister Says

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat speaking to the media at an event in Biggin Hill Airport in London on July 30, 2022. Henry Nicholls/PA Media

Security minister Tom Tugendhat on Tuesday confirmed he has asked the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to assess the “challenges” posed by apps such as TikTok.

It comes one day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC that ministers “take security of devices seriously” and are looking at “what our allies are doing” with regard to the Chinese social media app.

There have long been security concerns around TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance, while incorporated in the Cayman Islands, is based in Beijing, leading to a growing number of governments banning the app from official devices.

Asked whether he wants to see TikTok banned from government phones, Tugendhat told “Sky News Breakfast” that he doesn’t have the app on his phone for “reasons you can probably guess,” but “understanding exactly what the challenges that these apps pose and what they are asking for and how they’re reaching into our lives is incredibly important.”

The security minister said he had asked the NCSC to look into the apps and is still waiting for their advice.

Pressed on whether he would be willing to ban TikTok if it’s determined to be a potential threat, Tugendhat said different countries are taking different approaches, noting: “What’s certainly clear is that for many young people TikTok is now a news source. ...  It’s important that we know who owns news sources that are feeding into our phones and TikTok is one.”

Tugendhat previously warned that foreign states have “considerable sway” over social media algorithms.

The icon for the video sharing TikTok app is seen on a smartphone on Feb. 28, 2023. Matt Slocum/AP Photo

This appears to be a shift from comments made two weeks ago by Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan, who said there had been “no evidence” to support a ban.

Speaking to Politico, the new secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology said she believes it’s a matter of “personal choice” whether officials want to use TikTok on their phones.

A ban would be “a very, very forthright move … that would require a significant evidence base to be able to do that,” she told the publication.

Donelan’s comments came days after the European Commission and the Council of the European Union banned staff from having the app, and on the same day the European Parliament joined in the TikTok ban.

The Times of London on Sunday said that it was understood the NCSC had “identified risks to sensitive information.” The Epoch Times could not independently verify the information.

Growing Number of Bans

TikTok executives have denied having connections with the Chinese regime, but their promises have offered little reassurance.

The Epoch Times previously revealed that ByteDance had been employing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members in its highest ranks.

The company, like any other in China, is also subject to the regime’s National Intelligence Law, which requires all organisations and citizens to “support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.”

Arthur Herman, senior fellow at U.S. think tank the Hudson Institute, previously told The Epoch Times that the app harvests an enormous amount of data that can be used to picture, in the case of United States, “where American vulnerabilities lie,” and its algorithms can also turn the app into a “brainwashing app” by filtering content disliked by the CCP.

India banned TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps in June 2020, over concerns about their potential harm to the country’s security.

Taiwan banned TikTok and some other Chinese apps on state-owned devices and in December 2022 launched a probe into the social media app over suspected illegal operations on the island.

The U.S. Congress passed a bill in December 2022 to ban TikTok on federal devices. The bill is yet to be signed off by President Joe Biden.

Boise State University, University of Oklahoma, University of Texas-Austin, and West Texas A&M University are some of the schools that have banned TikTok on university devices and Wi-Fi networks.

Texas, Maryland, Alabama, and Utah are among over 25 states that have issued orders to staff against using TikTok on government devices.

Efthymis Oraiopoulos contributed to this report.