The BBC to its employees
“Except for professional reasons, you must delete TikTok”
The British audiovisual giant has advised its staff to remove TikTok from work phones. This request follows in the footsteps of several Western institutions suspicious of the Chinese social network.
Posted
TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is Chinese, has come under increasing scrutiny from Westerners over fears that Beijing could access user data across the world.
AFP
In an email sent to its employees on Sunday, the BBC asked that they not install TikTok on a company device, “except for a justified professional reason”. “And if you don’t need it, you have to delete it”, is it added.
These new instructions come as the United Kingdom already banned TikTok on government devices last week. This after Washington and the European Commission, which have similar bans in place.
“The BBC takes the security of its systems, data and staff very seriously. We are constantly reviewing activity on third-party platforms, including TikTok, and will continue to do so,” a spokesperson for the group said. “We would also like to make it clear that its use on BBC devices is still permitted for editorial and marketing purposes.”
Growing Western Surveillance
TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is Chinese, has come under increasing scrutiny from Westerners over fears that Beijing could access user data across the world.
The social network acknowledged in November that some employees in China could access European user data and admitted in December that employees had used that data to stalk journalists. But the group fiercely denies any Chinese government control or access to its data.
(AFP)