Yahoo News Evening Standard Comment: We should welcome TikTok to London | Terror threat remains | A whale of a time
If you came up with the plot for a film about a fictional social networking superpower poised to take over the world you might come up with something like TikTok.
A catchy name. A product that makes no sense to anyone who isn’t gripped by lip-syncing clips of a digital llama dancing to the tune of an outdated Russian cereal advert (that one has been watched about 90 million times). An owning company that is said to be worth more than $100 billion, run from China but which says it is really from the Cayman Islands, a small British territory in the Caribbean. A business at the centre of a battle between superpowers, with unsubstantiated warnings that it is a piece of spyware giving way to a plan for Microsoft to buy TikTok’s operations in four countries — the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with Donald Trump demanding the US Treasury get a big cut of the deal.
All the story needs next is James Bond to jet in to some island hideout. That won’t happen. But his security service bosses are certainly interested in what’s going on.
That’s partly because the possible Microsoft deal covers four of the countries which work together in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, but not the fifth — Britain. Quite why that is hasn’t been made clear.
One reason might be that Britain has been in the running for TikTok’s global headquarters — and possibly, still is.
The Government here says it would be a commercial decision — but it should back the plan much more enthusiastically.
It’s a rare chance for Britain to take a lead in social media. Whether TikTok will still want to come here after China promised retribution for Britain’s defence of Hong Kong’s rights is another matter.
But we should welcome the dancing llama to London.
Terror threat remains
The horror of coronavirus has taken our minds off other serious threats to London. But that doesn’t mean they have gone away.
Today, Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism chief tells the Evening Standard that the security services are currently investigating “800 different leads” into potential attackers and that “there is still a real threat”.
A terror attack, he warns, “is likely”. The danger comes from Right-wing extremists, as well as the supporters of Islamic State.
London has already suffered two attacks in the last nine months. We must hope that another does not take place — and back those who are working to keep us safe.
A whale of a time
It’s returning with a terrible pun — “Whale hellooo again” — but don’t let that put you off.
The good news is that from today the Natural History Museum is open again, and with free, timed tickets that can be booked online in advance you can see it without the usual school-holiday scrum.
The museum is an extraordinary place — not just a display but the home to many scientists too. Across the road, the V&A is back from tomorrow (also free, book online).
The Science Museum joins them soon. London is reopening.
