UK’s Starmer Launches Tiktok Account Despite Ban

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer launched a TikTok account on Monday despite the app being banned from government devices, as he attempts to connect to younger voters.

A spokesman for his office said “security mitigations” were in place to operate the Prime Minister’s account.

“Tiktok, follow me,” Starmer said in the first video posted on the account which showed him with his wife at the ceremony to switch on Downing Street’s Christmas lights.

The second video showed Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky embracing Starmer outside his residence at 10 Downing Street, before they joined France’s President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for talks on proposals to end the war in Ukraine.

In March 2023 London banned the use of Tiktok on government devices over data security concerns linked to the popular video sharing app’s Chinese parent company ByteDance.

READ ALSO: French Writers Sue TikTok Over Copyright

Similar bans exist in many other Western countries.

Prior to that ban, an official “10 Downing Street” account was launched in May 2022 when Boris Johnson was prime minister, but it stopped posting videos just three months later.

“Restrictions on the use of the app on most government devices remain in place and there’s no changes to our security policy when it comes to TikTok,” Starmer’s spokesman said.

The move is seen as Starmer’s latest attempt to connect more directly with voters, as he and his government struggle with stubbornly low popularity ratings.

On Friday, Starmer launched a Substack newsletter where he championed the government’s measures which seek to tackle child poverty.

“Communication is changing, and I want to be a part of that… That’s why I’m now on Substack,” Starmer wrote on the newsletter-sharing platform popular among writers and journalists.

The government has also embraced influencers, with two personal finance content creators given front row seats at a recent press conference.

Despite concerns about data security and other issues, TikTok remains one of the world’s most popular social media apps, with around 1.5 billion users worldwide and more than 30 million regular users in the United Kingdom.

Starmer joins other world leaders including Macron, US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the platform.