Following concerns raised by MPs regarding the social media app’s ownership by Chinese parent company ByteDance, the UK parliament shut down its TikTok account on Wednesday. A spokesman for the parliament stated, ‘Based on Member (of Parliament) feedback, we are closing the pilot UK Parliament TikTok account earlier than we had planned.’
Although the account has now been locked, he added ‘The account was a pilot initiative while we tested the platform as a way of reaching younger audiences with relevant content about parliament.’ A group of MPs who had received disciplinary measures from Beijing for speaking out against alleged human rights abuses led the protests.
One of those punished, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, welcomed the choice. ‘We need to start talking to people about not using TikTok,’ he said.
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