UK politician issues warning to delete TikTok over security concerns

Alicia Kearns, a UK Conservative MP, and Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee has urged people to get off TikTok because their data is exposed to ‘hostile threats’.

Alicia Kearn's warning

Alicia Kearns said users should ‘without question’ delete the app because the social media platform is linked to the efforts of the Chinese government to build wide-reaching control over technology, Independent reports.

The video-sharing platform is linked to China’s efforts to build a tech totalitarian state.

The founding company of TikTok is ByteDance with origins in China and for years critics have argued that the platform has a backdoor reserved for the Chinese government to access private data.

These allegations have been denied consistently by TikTok.

In December, Liz Kanter an executive at TikTok said the company was never approached by the Chinese government about UK user data, and if it was, it would not provide them.

'Get off TikTok'

Kearns was speaking to Sophy Ridge on SkyNews where she urged her and generally people in the UK to stop using the platform.

‘Sophie, get off it, stop it.’

‘We’ve been naive, are we? I’m worried’

‘We are being naive and have to get far more serious about protecting ourselves’

Kearns also said that TikTok officialsprovided guarantees to the UK Foreign Relations Committee that no security vulnerability is found on the platform.

Kearns dismisses this claim as she is confident the opposite is true. The claims by the senior MP come after revelations have surfaced about ByteDance employeesusing TikTok data to track Western journalists and discover their sources.

‘It is not worth having that vulnerability on your phone. It is the ultimate data source for anyone with hostile efforts. Everyone should be concerned about that’.

This is why the Senior MP is urging people in the UK to delete the platform which is merely a recommendation, as opposed to the US which passed a law in December to ban using TikTok on government-issued devices.

Sources used:

-Independent: ‘Delete TikTok to protect personal data from ‘hostile’ threats, says Tory MP’

-Sky News: ‘Delete TikTok or risk your data being exposed to 'hostile' threats, warns foreign affairs committee chief’