THE Scottish Parliament has told MSPs and all staff to remove TikTok from their phones amid security concerns.
The move, which stops short of a ban, comes one day after the UK Government moved to bar any government devices from using the Chinese-owned app.
A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said: “After discussions with the National Cyber Security Centre, we are strongly advising that all Members, Members' staff, Parliament staff and contractors' staff remove the TikTok app from any device currently used to access the Scottish Parliament's IT systems.
“This includes personal devices and [Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body] SPCB-issued devices.”
In 2020, India banned TikTok entirely, as well as 58 other Chinese-owned apps, saying they were secretly collecting data from people's phones.
Other nations including Pakistan, Jordan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh have also banned the social media app outright.
TikTok said bans have been based on “misplaced fears and seemingly driven by wider geopolitics”.
After UK Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden announced the government ban on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Britain accused ministers of acting “based on its political motive rather than facts”.
But No 10 said a security review had concluded that Government data could be “potentially vulnerable” via the social media platform.
The Cabinet Office said the ban was being imposed because TikTok users are required to hand over data including contacts, user content and geolocation data.
TikTok has long said it does not share data with China but the country’s intelligence legislation requires firms to help the Communist Party when requested.
The Chinese embassy, in comments issued on Thursday, said the targeted ban would “undermine the confidence of the international community in the UK’s business environment” while calling for London to “refrain from overstretching and abusing the concept of national security”.
TikTok, owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance, said it was “disappointed” with the decision. A spokesman for the firm said efforts were being made to make UK data even more secure and stressed that information shared by British users was not stored on China-based data centres.
