British Prime Minister Keir Starmer launched a TikTok account on Monday, despite the app being banned from government devices, in an effort to connect with younger voters.
A spokesman for the prime minister said “security measures” had been put in place to allow Starmer to use his account.
“TikTok, follow me,” Starmer said in the first video posted on the account, in which he appears with his wife at the Downing Street Christmas lights ceremony.
Another video showed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hugging Starmer outside his 10 Downing Street residence, before they joined French 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 due to data security concerns linked to its Chinese parent company ByteDance. Similar bans exist in many other Western countries.
Before that ban, the official “10 Downing Street” account was launched in May 2022 when Boris Johnson was prime minister, but stopped posting videos after just three months.
The move is seen as Starmer’s latest attempt to reach voters more directly, as his government and himself struggle with low popularity.
Despite concerns about data security and other issues, TikTok remains one of the most popular social networks in the world, with around 1.5 billion users globally and more than 30 million regular users in the UK.
Starmer joined other world leaders, including Macron, US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, on this platform.
(Vijesti.ba)
