The European Commission has banned all its employees from installing the TikTok application on their phones, a spokesperson for the institution announced on Thursday February 23. Mondeconfirming information fromEuractive and of Politico.
According to Euractive, who was able to consult the e-mail announcing the measure, the request to remove the Chinese social network from all devices was made on Thursday February 23, urging employees to respond as soon as possible and before March 15. After this date, those who have not deleted the ByteDance application will be deprived of access to certain tools, such as their professional e-mail.
The ban on using TikTok applies not only to employees’ work phones, but also to their personal smartphones if the latter contains any application they use for work, specifies Politico.
This Commission decision comes as the Chinese social network is the subject of multiple fears regarding the security of its users’ data and potential instrumentalization by the Chinese authorities. In November, TikTok publicly acknowledged that the data of its European users could be consulted, “according to the needs of the service”by employees in several countries, including China.
Other institutions have implemented similar measures in recent months. In the United States, Congress and more than half of the states have already implemented a ban of this type, and a bill passed in December by the Senate aims to ban its use on all devices owned by the federal state. . It still has to be voted on by the House of Representatives.