In a very unusual situation, the UK state broadcaster, the BBC, strongly urged its employees to ditch TikTok from their corporate-owned devices. However, the broadcaster will continue to use TikTok for content and marketing.
The BBC News story takes quotes from an email sent to BBC employees about its request to no longer use TikTok:
The decision is based on concerns raised by government authorities worldwide regarding data privacy and security. If the device is a BBC corporate device, and you do not need TikTok for business reasons, TikTok should be deleted from the BBC corporate mobile device.
If a BBC employee has a personal phone that is used for work, they will be asked to contact the broadcaster"s Information Security team for more information.
The odd thing about this semi-ban is that BBC News does have its own TikTok channel with 1.2 million followers. The story adds that it has recruited journalists to make content specifically for that channel.
When reached, a spokesperson for TikTok stated it would "remain in close dialogue with the BBC and are committed to working with them to address any concerns they have."
This news comes just a few days after the UK government banned TikTok on its own devices. Other governments, including the European Union, Canada, New Zealand, and the US have taken steps to ban the China-owned social network on government devices.
The US government wants to go even further and has threatened ByteDance with a total TikTok ban on all devices in the country unless TikTok is spun off from ByteDance into its own company not controlled by a Chinese corporation.