London expressed “real concerns” on Thursday about the way in which the data of millions of Britons could be used by the Chinese TikTok, in comments reported by The Guardian, without however talking about a ban, as in the United States.
“I have a real concern about TikTok’s shareholding. I am really concerned about the use of data,” said Technology Minister Peter Kyle in the columns of the British daily.
Fearing that Beijing could access user data or attempt to manipulate opinion in China’s favor, the US Congress ordered TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform, or face a ban, on behalf of the national security.
The deadline was Sunday, and the application was no longer accessible for a few hours in the United States, but Donald Trump, president again since Monday, granted it an additional period of 75 days.
In the United Kingdom, Mr. Kyle did not call for a ban on TikTok: “it is a desirable product,” he assured, saying he wanted to leave “young people free” and “find the right balance » regarding the application.
-“We call for caution” but “there are many traditional platforms and broadcasters whose editorial decisions lead to [elles aussi] bias,” he said.
In the UK, TikTok’s service “is provided by a registered company [dans le pays]subject to British laws and regulated by national regulators, a TikTok spokesperson responded to AFP.
In addition, “our parent company is majority owned by international investors, primarily based in the United States,” he added.
TikTok insists that the Chinese government has no stake in Bytedance and recalls that it has invested 10 billion pounds (or approximately 17.7 billion Canadian dollars) to set up a data security program in the United Kingdom and on the European continent.
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