The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has issued an advisory to its employees, urging them to delete the TikTok app from corporate phones. BBC warns employees due to privacy and security concerns. This makes BBC the first media organization in the UK to provide such guidance. It is only the second in the world after Denmark’s public service broadcaster.
According to the advisory, the BBC will continue to use TikTok for editorial and marketing purposes. However, the Chinese-owned app has been banned on government phones in the UK. Also, other countries, including the US, Canada, New Zealand, Belgium, and the European Commission.
The primary concern is that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, located in Beijing, could share data harvested from corporate phones with the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. On several occasions, the company has stated that the bans are based on “fundamental misconceptions.”
In 2022, several Western journalists discovered that ByteDance employees had tracked their locations. The company claims to have fired the employees involved.
Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed her opinion on the BBC’s decision in a tweet, stating, “If protecting sources isn’t a priority, that’s a major problem.”
As of now, TikTok is still permitted on personal devices.
Fastest-growing social media platforms TikTok for news publishers
Dominic Ponsford, editor-in-chief of the Press Gazette, a journalism industry trade publication, said that it would be interesting to see what other media organizations decide to do. “Until now, news organizations have been very keen to use TikTok.
As it’s been one of the fastest-growing social media platforms for news publishers over the last year. It’s been a good source of audience and traffic,” Ponsford said. “So most of the talk in the news media has been around encouraging TikTok rather than banning it.”
