British parliament blocks TikTok over security concerns

LONDON — Britain's parliament will block TikTok on all devices on its network following a similar ban on government devices, becoming the latest Western institution to bar the Chinese-owned video app over security concerns.

"Following the government's decision to ban TikTok from government devices, the commissions of both the House of Commons and Lords have decided that TikTok will be blocked from all parliamentary devices and the wider parliamentary network," a parliament spokesperson said.

Britain last week banned the Chinese-owned video app on government phones.

"Cyber security is a top priority for parliament," the spokesperson added.

The US, Canada, Belgium and the European Commission have already banned the app from official devices.

TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny due to fears that user data from the app owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests.

The British parliament's ban was announced as TikTok's chief executive faced questions from US lawmakers who are convinced the app should be barred for being a potential national security threat to the US. REUTERS