Members of the UK Army Special Air Service will not be able to use the TikTok social network on work smartphones. The ban was imposed by the special forces unit for security and intelligence. On Sunday, March 5, the newspaper reported The Mail on Sunday.
In addition, everyone who is a member of the British special forces is advised not to access TikTok from personal smartphones. The bans and recommendations are explained by the fact that the Chinese-based social network can be involved in espionage and is capable of transmitting secret data to the special services of China and Russia.
The publication clarifies that such bans have already been introduced in the United States, Canada and a number of EU countries.
Earlier, on January 13, the government of the US state of Kentucky signed an executive order to ban the TikTok platform on government devices, following the example of several other US states. The state has updated its employee guidance to ban civil servants from using the Chinese app on their work phones, citing cybersecurity concerns.
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns previously said about the danger of the Chinese application. The Chinese government, he said, can access US users’ information and moderate content.
On December 14, Republican Senator Marco Rubio introduced a bill that would ban China’s TikTok platform in the United States. According to the author of the law, in this way it will be possible to protect Americans from social networks that are controlled by the PRC or other foreign countries of concern.
Earlier, on November 16, the director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Chris Ray, said that TikTok poses a threat to the national security of the country. Chinese-owned TikTok’s activities in the US are raising concerns over the risk that the Chinese government could use the video-sharing app to influence users or control their gadget.
