TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is being put under the microscope by the UK government after countries worldwide banned the social media app from work phones.
Security minister Tom Tugendhat requested that the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) review TikTok’s security and data privacy.
Fears are mounting as to whether the video-sharing app is being used to promote pro-China views or gather user data.
The review comes less than a month after the EU commission banned staff from using TikTok on devices used for work, a decision also made by more than half of US states and Congress.
“Understanding exactly what the challenges that these apps pose, what they are asking for and how they're reaching into our lives is incredibly important,” said Tugendhat.
He argued that many young people now look to the Chinese app as a news source and that it was important for the UK to understand who owns the vehicle that is feeding such information.
Last year, the UK parliament deleted its TikTok account amid fears of a security breach.
In 2020, India banned the app nationwide after a conflict arose with Chinese troops on the Himalayan border.