Cat videos not a security threat, says minister ruling out UK TikTok ban

Cats and dancing videos do not “seem like a national security threat”, a Cabinet minister has said, as he confirmed there were “no plans” to ban TikTok in the UK.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said the Government was not currently intending to follow in the footsteps of the US, which has removed the platform from prominent app stores.

But Mr Jones did suggest the UK’s position could change if there was a “threat that we are concerned about”.

ByteDance

The social media giant lost a last-ditch legal bid on Friday to have a ban declared unconstitutional on free speech grounds, with the US Supreme Court rejecting TikTok’s appeal and unanimously upholding the law.

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 American government.

US President-elect Donald Trump has told NBC News he will “most likely” give TikTok 90 more days to work out a deal after he is sworn into office on Monday.

Mr Jones told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “We always keep all of these technology issues under consideration, whether it’s for national security or data privacy concerns.

“We have laws in place and processes to do that. We have no plans right now to ban TikTok from the UK.

“So, we won’t be following the same path that the Americans have followed unless or until at some point in the future there is a threat that we are concerned about in the British interest.”

At that point, he suggested things were kept under review.

He added: “On Government devices, for example, we’ve not been allowed to use TikTok for many years, the last Conservative government took the same position because there’s sensitive information on those devices.

“But for consumers who want to post videos of their cats or dancing, that doesn’t seem like a national security threat to me.”

National security

Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said she was “not considering” pushing for the UK to ban TikTok, but that the Government should be looking at what other countries were doing.

Also speaking on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, she said: “I’ve looked at online platforms and the permissive nature of them, but of course when it comes to TikTok specifically, it is linked to China.

“We have a very, very clear approach – not just from my party, but also in the UK – in terms of China and some of the national security, and, dare I say it, just the day-to-day security concerns that their platforms bring to our country.

“I think it is fair to say we will be following what is happening in America with regards to TikTok on many of the concerns that have been raised over here.”

Asked if she would ban TikTok, the former home secretary said: “I’m not considering it. We should always be looking at what other countries are doing.

“It’s too binary to say ‘should we just ban this in the UK?’, we have to look at the concerns that are reflected overseas, so here in America, learn some lessons and take some of those considerations into our own judgment before we come up with policy ideas.”