TikTok exec says, they’re being ‘kicked around as a political football’

It has been alleged that the Chinese Communist Party can access peoples data when using TikTok by the US secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

TikTok has insisted that these claims are “completely false” as the social media platform is “not available in China,” and all data is held “in the US.”

TikTok’s head of public policy for Europe, Theo Bertram, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, “TikTok is a company incorporated in the US.

“There is zero truth to the accusations that the Chinese state has access to TikTok users’ data.”

He added that TikTok would “definitely say no” to any requests for data, and has been set up in a way to “give protection to our users from the Chinese government.”

Bertram said, “The suggestion that we are, in any way, under the thumb of the Chinese government is completely and utterly false.”

It was also reported that TikTok have shelved their plans to move their headquarters to the UK, amid rising tensions between Beijing and London.

ByteDance TikTok’s parent company had been in discussions with the Department for International Trade and Downing Street to create around 3,000 jobs.

The Sunday Times reported that ByteDance have suspended the negotiations due to the “wider geopolitical context.”

There have been rising tensions over the new security law in Hong Kong along with Boris Johnson banning Huawei from the UK’s 5G network.

However, he dismissed these reports, he said, “We are still thinking about what to do about our global HQ and we haven’t made any decision on that yet, and anything else is speculation.”

Bertram hit out against the allegations and said the social media app is being “kicked around as a political football” and that some of the “political rhetoric” is “getting out of the reality.”