UK bans TikTok on government phones over security concerns

(Reuters) — Britain said Thursday it would ban TikTok on government phones, effective immediately, following other Western countries that have barred the Chinese-owned video app over security concerns.

“The security of sensitive government information must come first, so today we are banning this app on government devices. The use of other data-extracting apps will be kept under review,” Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden said in a statement.

TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny due to fears that user data from the app owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests.

The United States, Canada, Belgium and the European Commission have already banned the app from official devices.

“Restricting the use of TikTok on government devices is a prudent and proportionate step following advice from our cyber security experts,” Mr. Dowden said.

TikTok said it was disappointed with the decision and had already begun taking steps to further protect European user data.