BBC Mandates Employees to Remove TikTok App from Corporate Devices

BBC has advised its staff to remove TikTok from company-owned devices due to privacy and security fears. This comes after several countries banned TikTok from government-owned devices, which makes BBC the first media organization in the UK to issue the guidance.

Banning TikTok

A new guidance was released that prohibits BBC employees from using TikTok on any corporate devices. BBC reported that TikTok should be deleted from these phones if employees will not need the app for business reasons. This comes after the government of the United Kingdom banned the social media app amid the risk of sensitive data being accessed.

The spokesperson from the company stated, "The decision is based on concerns raised by government authorities worldwide regarding data privacy and security." Employees that will be using the app for editorial and marketing reasons will be exempted from the guidance. As of now, they constantly review activity on third-party platforms and assess the situation.

The guidance makes BBC the first media organization to issue this restriction in the United Kingdom and the second in the world. The company only comes second as Denmark's public service broadcaster already banned the application to company devices a few weeks ago.

BBC Technology Editor Zoe Kleinman confirmed this guidance in a tweet and stated that this will, unfortunately, affect her as the guidance will be effective for all employees. "Nobody has found a smoking gun. And yet the fears grow louder," she said.

TikTok's Response

Bloomberg reported that TikTok has been disappointed with BBC's decision as the previous bans from entities and government authorities were all based on misconceptions and wider geopolitics. The media organization has a strong presence on TikTok, with 4.4 million followers.

TikTok remains its stand by denying the allegations of handing users' data to the Chinese government. With this, the company makes sure to keep in touch with BBC and is fully committed to working with them to address any concerns they have despite the ban.

These allegations have also continued to rise as ByteDance employees were recently found to have tracked the locations of Western journalists last year. In TikTok's defense, the company says they were already fired.

Government Ban

Despite being still permitted on personal devices in all countries, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Belgium, and anyone working at the European Commission banned the usage of the app from government-owned devices.

With the same reason from BBC, The Guardian reported that the mentioned countries' governments are concerned regarding the platforms' data harvesting from the corporate phones and could share with the Chinese government by parent company ByteDance. The company's headquarters are located in Beijing, China.

China, on the other hand, has urged government authority to treat ByteDance's TikTok fairly after several countries joined in restricting the use of TikTok over security concerns. Foreign Ministry Wang Wenbin stated that nations should acknowledge objective facts and uphold the ideals of a non-discriminatory environment over the implemented bans.