British Parliament Member Warns: "Delete TikTok"

By Jackson Kincaid

In Brief: 

A Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) has warned fellow Britons to delete their TikTok accounts to avoid being spied on by the Chinese government. 

The Background: 

Alicia Kearns, the Conservative Party MP who serves as the head of the UK’s foreign affairs select committee warned on Sunday that there was now significant evidence that TikTok was being used to gather the data of individual users in the UK for intelligence purposes, report Breitbart News.

The committee went further to say their concern is growing as China grows in boldness in data penetration, referencing the Chinese Spy balloon Biden had shot down, but only after Biden allowed it to cross the entirety of the United States.

The Dutch Government has gone so far as to ban the social media platform from being downloaded on government-owned devices as well as warn its citizens to beware for fear of personal data being harvested. The Netherlands told its various departments to “suspend the use of TikTok” for government officials and on governmental devices. 

Notable Quotes: 

“[W]hat TikTok does is it gives away the data that makes you most vulnerable: who are you friends with; what are your interests; what are the interests you have that you may not want publicly disclosed; who you are having private conversations with; the locations you go to. There’s a reason why China has this app.” – Alicia Kearns, British Parliament