Pressure grows on Rishi Sunak to impose a ban on MPs using TikTok

Rishi Sunak is facing increasing calls to impose a ban on MPs using TikTok after government officials were recommended to delete the Chinese-owned app for security purposes.

Experts at GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre recommended civil servants stop using the platform after identifying risks to sensitive information.

It follows similar moves by the White House, European Union and Canada in recent months to clamp down on TikTok, which is owned by Bytedance.

Under the new proposals government employees will be allowed to keep the video-sharing app on their personal phones, but ‘discouraged’ from doing so, according to the Mail on Sunday.

However, a number of British lawmakers are prominent users of the app, including Energy Secretary Grant Shapps and former Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Rishi Sunak is facing increasing calls to impose a ban on MPs using TikTok after government officials were recommended to delete the Chinese-owned app for security purposes

A number of British lawmakers are prominent users of the app, including former Health Secretary Matt Hancock (pictured)

Last night former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, one of a handful of MPs sanctioned by the Chinese government, said: ‘Downing Street should immediately implement a ban on ministers using TikTok, just as a start.

‘Grant Shapps should take note.’

Luke de Pulfordm Executive Director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, added: ‘This app isn’t just problematic for government officials and MPs – nobody who cares about data privacy should be using it.

‘Quite apart from having to own up to censoring Uyghur content, TikTok’s executives have failed to offer a guarantee that user data won’t be accessed from China, and by extension, by the Chinese Communist Party.

‘Those who have reverse engineered the app have described it as ‘essentially Chinese Government Spyware’. It’s time to get rid.’

Last week TikTok pledged to strengthen controls on personal information on the app in Europe amid concerns they could share user data with Beijing. [File image] 

Government employees will be allowed to keep the video-sharing app on their personal phones, but ‘discouraged’ from doing so

No 10 had initially resisted banning officials from using TikTok, suggesting it was a decision for individual departments and ministers to make.

Last week TikTok pledged to strengthen controls on personal information on the app in Europe amid concerns they could share user data with Beijing.

At least nine MPs are still using the increasingly popular social media platform, including Levelling Up minister Dehenna Davison and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Last month Tory backbencher Dr Luke Evans raised eyebrows after posting a video of his route into Downing Street, including shots of security, to his 41,000 followers.

A Government spokesperson said: ‘All departments have robust processes in place to ensure government IT devices are secure, including managing risks from third party applications.’