The British government has become the latest to ban Chinese social media app TikTok from the smartphones and other electronic devices used by civil servants.
The ban in the United Kingdom is similar to ones already enacted in the U.S. and Canada, and announced by the European Commission.
Governments around the world have growing fears that TikTok is being used by Chinese authorities to access sensitive data held on smart phones and computers.
While TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has denied allegations that it hands user data to the Chinese government in Beijing, the company has acknowledged that Chinese authorities can access the data it collects if it wants to.
Several journalists in the U.S. were found to have been tracked by ByteDance using the TikTok app on their phones.
The Chinese state demands loyalty from all businesses based in the country and nobody really knows to what extent ByteDance might have to comply with demands for data from government officials.
Chinese intelligence laws require private sector companies to help the Communist Party when requested to do so.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had been under pressure from lawmakers and his own political party to follow the U.S. and the European Union in banning TikTok, which allows people to post and watch short form videos.
Use of the TikTok app has exploded in popularity, with 3.5 billion users worldwide, about half the global population.
Some politicians had embraced TikTok and used it to communicate with younger voters as the majority of its users are under age 30.
The Welsh government in the U.K. has also banned TikTok from the work phones of civil servants. The Scottish government has said it is reviewing the situation with TikTok.
