The Guardian reported on Aug. 3 that the British Parliament deactivated its official TikTok account, which had been registered for only six days, because senior British Conservative Party officials pressured the speaker, claiming that “the app’s data risks are considerable. According to public information, TikTok is a short video application owned by Chinese technology company Byte Jump, which is popular among overseas netizens because of its light-heartedness and fun. To fully reach out to the younger generation, the British Parliament announced on social media on July 27 that it had opened an account on TikTok and released its first video to promote the British attraction Big Ben.
On July 27, the British Parliament announced on Twitter that it had posted the first video on TikTok
Less than two days after the video was posted, however, a group of senior British Conservative MPs, including Tugenhardt, Duncan Smith and Gurney, wrote a joint letter to the Speaker and the Speaker of the House of Commons in protest, demanding that Parliament immediately cancel the account “until it is ensured that no data or anything can be transferred to China.
“(Signing up for a TikTok account) is an attempt to reach out to a younger audience and make them aware of the work of Parliament. Young people are not very active on the existing social media in parliament.” The Speaker of the Upper and Lower Parliaments said that Parliament will close the TikTok account in light of MPs’ concerns about setting it up. The account is currently set to be private.
The official TikTok account of the British Parliament has been set as a private account
Seeing that the aim has succeeded, Duncan Smith and others have further urged that “all MPs and official government agencies immediately log off their TikTok accounts”.
The Guardian said that many MPs use TikTok to interact with younger groups, such as Culture Secretary Doris and Transport Secretary Shapps, as well as several Conservative and Labour MPs, who are active on TikTok.
In addition, last October, British Prime Minister Johnson also created the official TikTok account of the British government, about 300,000 people follow this account. 5 days ago, the account also released a funny video, predicting who can become the next prime minister.
The official TikTok account of the British government, “10 Downing Street”
Faced with the so-called “TikTok is very dangerous” claim, the British government spokesman said “all arrangements will be taken seriously”. However, according to The Guardian, sources say the government’s current reservations about the TikTok account are not due to concerns about TikTok’s security, but rather to pressure from “hawkish” Chinese lawmakers to resist.
