TikTok star Meggie Foster has hit back against sharp criticism of the video app from UK politicians, branding those who wish to ban it killjoys.
“Freaking out over who owns what is a heavy-handed response to one of the most fun, original apps that doesn’t have an agenda,” Foster tells us. “It takes a certain kind of killjoy to target it.”
This week Sir Iain Duncan Smith told the Standard: “We need to treat it [TikTok] the same way we treat Huawei and ban it.” The social media app’s parent company was founded by Zhang Yiming in 2012 and is coming under pressure on both sides of the Atlantic, with the Trump administration said to be considering a ban.
Tory groups are warning against what they perceive as security risks stemming from Chinese-owned media companies, including Huawei. But Foster, whose lip-sync videos have repeatedly gone viral on the app, racking up millions of views, says “paranoia about the Chinese government spying is spinning out of control”. She continued: “I’m not worried about who owns any platform. Facebook or Twitter could easily censor personal content and hand over data to the US.” Is IDS ready for the wrath of the millennials?
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Historian David Olusoga warns against the “dangerous trap” of focusing on words, not actions, in the Black Lives Matter debate. At a Royal Society of Arts event last night he said: “I don’t care about what Edward Colston’s views on Africans were. I care about the 19,000 people that died in the holds of the slave ships of the Royal African Company.” A way forward.
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Pamela Anderson may not have joined fellow Julian Assange supporter Vivienne Westwood outside the High Court yesterday in a birdcage, but she’s been wrestling with other matters. “I have a gym, but I don’t use it. I keep looking at it. I need to use it, that’s one of the things I need to do,” she tells the WSJ, adding ruefully: “I’ve never been a workout person.”
SW1A
Rob Roberts, the MP being investigated over allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards junior parliamentary staff, had his Wikipedia page edited anonymously from the Commons yesterday. Two sections covering the allegations were deleted. They have since been restored. Hare-brained.
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Greg Hands MP tells us: “I was surprised to hear from my office on Whitehall the Soviet national anthem at full volume. It certainly took my back to my travels in Eastern Europe in the 1980s,” adding: “I thought I might have woken up in a world where Corbyn had won last year’s election after all.” Cheeky.
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Shaun Bailey has come under fire for claiming Sadiq Khan “bankrupted TfL”, apparently forgetting the impact of a certain virus. Could his new adviser — James Starkie, an ex-Vote Leave, ex-Priti Patel aide — be behind the tone shift?
Teddy keeps mum over fashionable Ora
RITA ORA was posing next to a giant teddy when her mother stepped in. “Oh your top is ripped Rit, mum can sew it for you,” she commented on Instagram. It’s fashion, mum. Meanwhile Leomie Anderson showed off some sharp jeans, Damien Hirst modelled a mask and Jess Glynne bid farewell to Mykonos, saying: “I’m coming home now cause s***s bout to get real.” Brace yourselves, Sexy Fish.
