TikTok is feeding Western teens “dumbed down” content while providing Chinese youth with educational and motivational videos, the president of the British Chambers of Commerce has claimed.
Baroness Martha Lane Fox—a former Twitter board member—said the video sharing app was “eroding ambition and motivation” by bombarding Western young people with addictive content.
Douyin users under the age of 14 are also shielded with strict measures to prevent them from gorging on videos.
Children are limited to 40 minutes each day between 6am and 10pm in the app’s “youth mode”. Videos also include a five-second break between clips.
In the UK, TikTok introduced an optional time limit of 60 minutes per day for teens aged between 13 and 18. The function can be easily disabled.
Speaking at London’s Mindgym summit on Thursday, Fox said the app was promoting “makeup tutorials to American children... to dumb down the content.”
Ban
However, the peer, co-founder of online travel site Lastminute.com, stopped short of calling for a UK ban on the app.“I don’t think it should be banned, but I think we should be very careful,” the Telegraph reported.
“Separating the ownership structure properly feels right.”
According to the newspaper, TikTok said the claims were “simply untrue.”
The Epoch Times has contacted the social media app for comment.
The peer’s criticism comes amid a growing backlash against TikTok, accused of being a potential spying and espionage tool for the Chinese government.
On Wednesday, Montana became the first state in the United States to completely ban the video-sharing app.
The state’s Republican governor signed a measure that is more sweeping than any other state’s attempts to curtail the social media app.
The measure, which is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2024, is expected to be challenged legally and will serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free America that many national legislators have envisioned.
“Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party,” governor Greg Gianforte said in a statement.
TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter argued that the law infringes on people’s First Amendment rights and is unlawful.
“We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana,” Oberwetter said in a statement.
More than half of U.S. states and the federal government have a similar ban.
Beijing Anger
Some lawmakers, the FBI and officials at other agencies are concerned that the video-sharing app could be used to allow China’s regime to access information on American citizens or push pro-Beijing misinformation that could influence the public.TikTok argues it does not share data with China.
However, Beijing’s intelligence legislation requires firms to help the Communist Party when requested.
Regulators in America have warned TikTok it will be banned in the United States unless it financially separates from its China-headquartered parent company.
Beijing reacted angrily with the Chinese embassy in the UK describing it as a move “based on its political motive rather than facts” and said it will “ultimately harm the UK’s own interests.”
The TikTok ban applies to government corporate devices within ministerial and nonministerial departments but not personal devices.
Scotland also introduced a similar ban weeks later.
