Oliver Dowden has promised that the UK will not compromise when it comes to protecting government secrets.
As he announced the TikTok ban on government devices, the deputy prime minister said “security must always come first.”
Parliamentary Wi-Fi blocked the Chinese social media app days later.
That was 14 months ago.
Now, while security concerns around TikTok have persisted, political reality appears to have overtaken them.
On Sunday, Rishi Sunak took to the video-sharing app, appearing on the Conservative Party's first official TikTok account, to promote his national service policy for every 18 year old.
“Hello TikTok,” said Rishi Sunak. , facing the camera. “Sorry to barge into your usual politics-free channel, but I have a big announcement today and I'm told many of you already have some opinions on this.”
@ukconservatives This will change lives #nationalservice #generalelection #uk #rishisunak ♬ original sound – Conservatives
Labour beat the Tories by 48 hours by releasing its first campaign video on Friday.
And by Sunday evening, Sir Keir Starmer's party had fully embraced the medium, using popular memes to attack Sunak's national service policies.
One featured Lord Farquaad, the diminutive Shrek antagonist uttering the line, “Some of you may die, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice.”
Another featured 1980s Cilla Black performing “Surprise.” , Surprise,” a recurring TikTok meme, above the caption: “POV [Point of View]: Rishi Sunak shows up on your 18th birthday to send you off to war.”
@ uklabour Surprise surprise #generalelection #toriesout # ukelection #ukpolitics ♬ original sound – UKLabour
Social media has been a vital part of winning elections for nearly two decades. Barack Obama used Facebook to fund his path to the White House in 2008, and Donald Trump's tweets dominated the conversation eight years later.
But today, getting attention online is more important than ever.
< p>According to Ofcom, in 2012, 85% of adults received news from television and 53% from radio. By last year, this figure had dropped to 70% and 41%.Internet use for news has grown from 41% to 68%, and nearly half of adults get their news from social media.
While Facebook is the dominant news source, TikTok is rapidly gaining popularity. In 2019, the last time there was a general election in the UK, the app didn't even register in the polls.
Last year, 10% of people said they got their news from TikTok – more than Radio One.< /p>
One in ten UK teenagers say an app is their main way of getting news, and among 12-15 year olds it is. – the second largest source of information in the UK after the BBC.
The application's sophisticated algorithm and short videos also attract users.
People under 24 spend an hour a day on it. . Because users can watch hundreds of videos in a few minutes, the potential audience for a viral video is huge.
For example, the Labor Party's “Shrek” meme received two million views in 24 hours; Sunak's national service video has 1.3 million views.
“TikTok is the best platform for reaching young, especially progressive, voters. It's that simple,” says Thomas Gift, associate professor of political science at University College London.
That doesn't mean center-right parties can ignore it.
TikTok reportedly played a significant role in last year's New Zealand elections, where the right-wing National Party defeated centre-left Labor Party incumbents.
The Nationals' social media campaign was led by Sean Topham. , the 33-year-old advertising guru who helped Boris Johnson win the election.
While Topham pulled stunts on Twitter during the 2019 campaign, renaming the official Conservative Twitter account “Fact Check UK” to attack Jeremy Corbyn's Labour, he says TikTok is now the most important way to reach young voters.< /p>
Speaking on the Business of Politics podcast in January, Topham said: “From a social media perspective, TikTok was the most important decision we made early on, about 12 to 18 months before the election, that we need to be on the platform.” /p>
“Chris Luxon [the National Party's winning candidate] came into the office and said to the digital team: 'Wow, people recognize me from TikTok.' will attract younger voters, doesn't mean you should completely ignore them or exclude them from your message.”
Unlike Facebook, where parties must spend millions When it comes to targeted advertising, TikTok doesn't allow political advertising, which puts more demands on social media gurus to gain popularity by going viral.
Although Sunak is a newcomer on TikTok, some conservatives have taken advantage of the service.
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Grant Shapps, the defense secretary, has posted hundreds of videos on the app promoting military visits and donations to Ukraine.
On the day TikTok was banned from government phones, his contribution was a clip from The Wolf of Wall Street, in which Leonardo DiCaprio shouts “I'm not leaving” to rapturous applause. Mr Shapps said the ban was reasonable and that he had never used the app on a government device.
Deenna Davison, who was part of the Tory Red Wall Party in 2019 when aged 28 won the seat of Bishop Auckland and is also a frequent TikTokker, attracting the app's core audience with posts about Taylor Swift and marathon training.
Even 10 Downing Street had an official account during Johnson's reign, although it remained dormant for almost two years.
TikTok itself is forging political connections and encouraging MPs to register.
Until recently, as head of European policy, he hired Theo Bertram, an adviser to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
In March, she told a parliamentary committee that involving politicians in the service would reduce the risk of malicious misinformation spreading.
However, the more active wing of the party opposed the application.
< p>They include Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the party's former leader who compared it to Huawei, the telecoms equipment company banned in 2021, and Alicia Kearns, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
>They point out that TikTok is owned by ByteDance, whose Chinese headquarters means the company is legally required to provide information requested by Beijing authorities, and fear that the app could be used to spread pro-China propaganda.
TikTok says this. never provided information to the Chinese authorities and would not have done so if asked.
But they did not take her word for it. Last month, the US Congress approved laws that would force TikTok's Chinese owners to sell the app's US arm or face being blocked.
But even in the US, TikTok's political influence is impossible to ignore.
Joe Biden may have signed the ban into law, but his campaign joined the app two months earlier.
The European Union has not ruled out its own ban, but leading politicians, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, have signed on ( Scholz at least he promised he wouldn't dance).
Kate Dommett, professor of digital politics at the University of Sheffield, says it could be difficult for both Labor and the Conservatives to make an impact in just six weeks of campaigning. to change that.
“Now they won't have to spend much time building their audience,” she says, adding that both parties seem to be competing for older voters anyway.
B In the early days of the election campaign, Labor and the Conservatives amassed 50,000 and 15,000 TikTok followers respectively.
But Nigel Farage, a two-year veteran of the app, has amassed almost 600,000.
Not to mention the risks of a national security, both major parties hope the TikTok popularity contest will not be indicative of a broader voting pattern.
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