British lawmakers sanctioned by the Chinese regime on Thursday urged Parliament to delete its newly set up TikTok account, saying they are “surprised and disappointed” that Parliament set up an account with the Chinese-owned app.
In a post on Twitter promoting its new TikTok account, which appears to target young people, Parliament said on Wednesday that the account was going to publish “news and behind-the-scenes content from the Elizabeth Tower,” starting with a video on “where’s the best spot to get your best selfie with the famous Tower.”
“Recent reports have made clear that, contrary to assurances given by company executives to the BEIS [Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy] Select Committee in 2021, TikTok data is routinely transferred to China. They may have misled Parliament on this point,” the letter reads.
The lawmakers said Chinese companies are “required to yield data” to the authorities upon request and “may not reveal that they have done so when asked” under the communist regime’s 2017 Intelligence Security law.
“After repeated questioning from the BEIS Select Committee, TikTok executives were unable to reassure MPs that the company could prevent data transfer to ByteDance, should the parent company make a request for it,” the lawmakers said, adding that ByteDance would be legally obliged to hand over UK data to the Chinese authorities if requested.
“The prospect of Xi Jinping’s government having access to personal data on our children’s phones ought to be a cause of major concern,” the letter reads.
The lawmakers argued that while efforts to engage young people should always be welcome, “we cannot and should not legitimise the use of an app which has been described by tech experts as ‘essentially Chinese government spyware.’”
They urged the speakers to remove the account until they have determined “whether or not the company misled Parliament, and until credible assurances can be given that no data whatsoever can be transferred to China.”
Conservative MPs Nusrat Ghani, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Tim Loughton, Tom Tugendhat, Crossbench peer Lord David Alton, and Labour peer Baroness Helena Kennedy are signatories of the letter.
A Parliament spokesperson said the speakers will respond to the letter in due course, and said Parliament had undertaken “all necessary steps to ensure none of our data is at risk” before setting up the account.
“We cannot go into any further detail about these measures for security reasons,” the statement reads.
A spokesperson for TikTok said: “The TikTok platform does not operate in China and we have never provided user data to the Chinese government. UK politicians and government departments use TikTok to reach millions of people in an engaging and creative way—welcome the opportunity to talk directly to the signatories to clarify the factual inaccuracies contained in their letter to the speakers.”
