TikTok may face UK government restrictions but unlikely to be blocked from setting up London office
- A review led by the prime minister’s chief of staff Eddie Lister is likely to find TikTok does not pose as big a security threat as Huawei, a source says
- Executives at ByteDance’s UK operation are, however, braced for greater scrutiny from regulators and politicians
ByteDance has rejected claims that it is controlled by the Chinese government, or that user data is at risk. Executives at its UK operation are, however, braced for greater scrutiny from regulators and politicians.
They are particularly concerned by the comparison with Huawei simply because they are both Chinese companies, according to a person familiar with internal discussions at the company.
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A spokeswoman for TikTok and a spokesman for Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre both declined to comment. A spokesperson for Johnson’s office said “ByteDance’s decision on the location of their global HQ is a commercial decision for the company.” The Department for Culture Media and Sport did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last month, the UK government ordered all 5G equipment made by the Shenzhen-based company will need to be removed from the network by 2027.
Some members of Johnson’s own party had already voiced concerns about TikTok, which has rapidly emerged as a rival to Google’s video-sharing site YouTube, serving as an alternative for creative talent as well as advertising dollars, with over 100 million users in the US alone.
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“With a flashy campus in the UK, ByteDance would be free to masquerade as a British equivalent to Facebook or Google, gaining credibility in London,” said Conservative lawmaker Iain Duncan Smith.
Tom Tugendhat, a ruling Conservative Party lawmaker who chairs Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, has also questioned ByteDance’s reputation within China, last month tweeting that TikTok is a form of surveillance malware.
Regulators across Europe have opened probes into TikTok, but politicians appear to be in no hurry to ban it. France has no plans to do so, and either does Germany, according to spokespeople for their respective governments.