The government banned Friday, March 24 the installation and use of applications “recreational” such as the Chinese social network TikTok or the American streaming platform Netflix on the work phones of the 2.5 million state civil servants.
These apps have “Cybersecurity and data protection risks for public officials and the administration”estimated the entourage of the Minister of the Public Service Stanislas Guerini, who follows in the footsteps of several Western institutions and governments that have already banned or limited the use of TikTok on professional devices.
Personal phones are not affected
Among the applications now banned is “the triptych gaming apps like Candy Crush, streaming apps like Netflix and recreational apps like TikTok”, explains the entourage of Stanislas Guerini, before adding that Twitter is also blacklisted. But the government has not yet drawn up a uniform list of prohibited applications, the measure is taken by default.
The ban, notified to the various ministries by means of an instruction “binding” according to the government, comes into force immediately, and does not concern the personal telephones of civil servants. Civil servants who wish to use one of the banned applications for institutional communication purposes must apply for an exemption from the digital department of their ministry.
No penalty
In case of violation of the prohibition, no unified system of sanctions is foreseen at this stage. The possible sanctions will have to be decided “at the managerial level” of each ministry, according to the services of Stanislas Guerini.
The White House, the European Commission, the Canadian and British governments, among others, and other organizations recently banned their officials from using TikTok on their work phones. At the center of fears is a 2017 Chinese law that requires local companies to hand over personal data that would be relevant to national security upon request from the authorities.