SOCIAL MEDIA GIANT TikTok has insisted that the Chinese communist party does not have access to the personal information of its users.
Asked about such claims, TikTok head of public policy for Europe, Theo Bertram, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
“It’s completely false.
TikTok is not available in China. TikTok data is stored in the US.
TikTok is a company incorporated in the US.
“There is zero truth to the accusations that the Chinese state has access to TikTok users’ data.”
Bertram also addressed rumours that a decision to locate TikTok’s headquarters in the UK have been cast into doubt due to pressure exerted by the US.
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has been in discussions with officials from the Department for International Trade and No 10 to establish a worldwide base in Britain, creating 3,000 jobs.
But The Sunday Times reported yesterday that ByteDance has made the decision to suspended those negotiations due to the “wider geopolitical context”.
It comes after the UK ordered telecoms firms to strip Huawei equipment out of 5G networks by 2027, based on security fears.
Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, told The Andrew Marr Show yesterday: “We are still evaluating the consequences. This is a very bad decision.”
“It is wrong for the United Kingdom to discriminate [against a] Chinese company because of pressure from the United States.”
- with reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha
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