UK Parliament : UK Parliament closed its Tiktok account

The British Parliament has closed its Tiktok account after several UK MPs feared that the information of members of Parliament was being shared with China. This account was started few days back. Last year, several British MPs jointly wrote to the Speakers of both the Houses of Commons and the House of Lords, demanding the closure of the account, which began on 27 July.

The main author of the letter, Pakistani-origin Conservative Party MP Nus Ghani tweeted about this correspondence. It said that Tiktok officials failed to convince the lawmakers that the company could stop the data transfer. A Parliament spokesman said that based on the feedback of members, we are closing the Tiktok account of the UK Parliament.

Although TikTok's parent company is China-based ByteDance, it denies ties to the Chinese government. The company claims that all the data is stored in the US and Singapore. A TikTok spokesperson said, "While it is disappointing that Parliament will no longer be able to connect with the millions of people using TikTok in the UK. We reiterate our offer to reassure those members of Parliament." Pakistan again lifted the ban on Tiktok a few months back. Pakistan then lifted the ban after four months. The ban was lifted after China's popular video-sharing service had given assurances that it would control the transmission of pornographic material.

Pakistan first banned TikTok, popular among teenagers and youth, in October 2020. It had said that it had received several complaints about the content on the app allegedly found to be immoral, obscene and indecent. The regulatory agency said in a statement on Twitter that TikTok has assured Pakistan that it will block users who upload 'illegal content'. This app of China's ByteDance company was downloaded about 39 million times in Pakistan.