Lord Mandelson’s firm advising Tiktok in UK as it looks to avoid further bans
A public affairs firm set up by Lord Mandelson is advising Chinese-owned Tiktok, which faces bans by multiple governments over spying fears.
Global Counsel, which Mandelson founded in 2016, is helping Tiktok “frame their messaging” to assuage concerns that it would pass on data to Chinese state intelligence agencies if asked, according to a report in The Mail on Sunday.
The video sharing site, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, was banned on all UK government devices earlier this month following a security review by GCHQ.
The report quoted an industry source saying that Mandelson’s firm was “telling Tiktok how to interact with the various international regulators”, adding that “they’re also telling them how to frame their messaging”.
In response to the revelation, Mandelson told The Mail on Sunday that he was “not directly involved” in the advice.
The Labour doyen, who is said to be masterminding Keir Starmer’s election strategy, was accused of cosying up to Beijing in 2021, when he assured Li Keqiang, China’s premier at the time, that critics of the country’s human rights record would be “proved wrong”.
Global Counsel and TikTok were not immediately available for comment when contacted by Morning Wire