‘No plans’ for UK TikTok ban
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There are “no plans” for a TikTok ban in the UK, officials have said as a block in the US is set to come into force on Sunday. The social media giant lost a last-ditch legal bid this week to have a ban declared as unconstitutional on free-speech grounds.
Last April, US President Joe Biden signed a law which gave TikTok a deadline of January 19 to separate its US business from parent firm ByteDance, a China-based company whose control of TikTok is seen as a national security threat by the US government.
This week, the US Supreme Court rejected TikTok’s appeal and unanimously upheld the law banning the app. A UK Government spokesperson said: “This is a matter for the US government. There are no plans to introduce a TikTok ban in the UK. “We engage with all major social media companies to understand their plans for ensuring the security of UK data and to ensure they meet the high data protection and cyber security standards we expect.”.
While President Biden’s administration has signalled that it would not enforce the law, TikTok has said it will have to “go dark” unless there are assurances that the US government will not enforce a shut down. TikTok released a statement late on Friday saying “statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans”.
