Irish Examiner View: Cyber suspicion takes hold as TikTok concerns grow

IDA Ireland has told staff to delete video-sharing app TikTok from their devices, despite the company being one of its clients.

TikTok was fined £12.7m by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office last month for not taking enough action to ensure users younger than 13 were not using the app.

Readers may have noticed a story in yesterday’s paper which appeared to come straight from the imagination of George Orwell.

IDA Ireland confirmed it will be following the advice issued by the National Cyber Security Centre last week that public servants should delete the video-sharing app TikTok from their devices — this is due to fears that the data contained therein could be sent to the Chinese government.

The twist here, of course, is that TikTok is itself an IDA client, described by the State agency as “a significant employer in Ireland’s tech ecosystem providing over 3,000 jobs”.

In short, the national agency charged with attracting foreign direct investment cannot use the technology created by one of its foreign direct investment clients because of concerns about that technology.

This is not a criticism of the IDA as much as an acknowledgement of the realities of dealing with the Chinese authorities. 

After all, just last month Communications Minister Eamon Ryan and his officials travelling to China for St Patrick’s Day were issued with “burner phones” and told to leave internet-connected devices used for State business at home because of similar surveillance concerns.

Regarding the IDA, clearly those working for the State agency in securing foreign investment are privy to highly sensitive commercial information, and if that information were stolen, then Ireland would be at a serious disadvantage — given how keen the competition for FDI is among countries all over the world, that disadvantage would be a fatal blow to Ireland’s chances of attracting industry to these shores.

TikTok has somehow managed to maintain its popularity, helped no doubt by deft partnerships such as sponsoring the Women’s Six Nations.

Whether the tech company should be involved with sports at all, when it was fined £12.7m by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office last month, is another question. That fine was imposed because TikTok did not take enough action to ensure users younger than 13 were not on the app, and because it used their data without parental consent.

Orwell would have had rare fun dissecting a society in which an app with such a sinister reputation is embraced so wholeheartedly.