The European Union’s governing agencies have prohibited employees from using TikTok on work devices, citing data and cybersecurity issues.
Both the European Commission and the Council banned the social media app, which has come under fire in Europe and the United States in recent months.
Banning TikTok on official devicesOn Thursday, Commission employees received an email informing them that the Chinese-owned social media app must be uninstalled from all company devices by March 15.
If workers want to keep using Commission applications on their own mobile devices, they must uninstall TikTok as well. They will be unable to access their job emails or other EU-specific applications on their personal phones if they do not obey.
It is the first time that employees have been instructed to delete a programme from their devices.
“I can affirm that the Commission ordered all coworkers who had the app loaded on business devices and personal devices enrolled in the Commission mobile device service to uninstall the app,” Sonya Gospodinova, the Commission’s digital spokeswoman, said.
Gospodinova said the prohibition was a “temporary step” and would be “constantly under review”. She would not, however, say under what circumstances it could be lifted or whether fresh intelligence prompted the decision.
The Council followed suit on Thursday. “It will uninstall the programme on business devices and suggest that employees uninstall it from personal mobile devices that have access to corporate services,” an EU source explained.
The Council is a legislative entity comprised of members from all 27 EU member states. According to its website, the secretariat employs 3,108 individuals.
TikTok’s worsening position across North America and EuropeWhile the wildly popular app has caused significant problems in the United States, where the incoming chairman of a new congressional select committee on China, Mike Gallagher, referred to it as “digital fentanyl” due to its “addictive and destructive” nature, it has also come under increased scrutiny in Europe.
According to Politico, government officials in the Netherlands were advised to avoid TikTok in January due to privacy issues.
TikTok acknowledged last year that the data of its European users was available outside the EU, including in China. The Irish Data Protection Authority stated last year that it is examining the transfer of personal data of European users to China.
On Thursday, the European Union’s executive branch ordered TikTok employees to remove the video-sharing app from their phones.
TikTok responds to bansTikTok’s vice president of European public affairs, Theo Bertram, told Bloomberg that the company’s executives discovered out through media reports. The European Commission department that imposed the suspension never contacted the business to express its worries.
“We’ve never spoken with them. “They’ve never asked for our opinion, so it’s a shocker,” Bertram explained. “Normally we would anticipate some interaction and then some capacity to comprehend what the case is against us, what the proof is, to handle that. And we haven’t had any of that in this case.”
The prohibition was part of a rising movement to limit TikTok on government devices, which was prompted by concerns about cybersecurity risks and the company’s ties to the Chinese government. The app has also been blocked from government devices in the United States, and some officials there have asked for a wider ban on TikTok, whose parent firm is China’s ByteDance Ltd.
“Un-European” moveTikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was in Brussels last month, meeting with a number of European commissioners, some of whom expressed worries about data security. This came after a December incident in which TikTok workers gained access to user data.
“They never gave us the sense that this was being contemplated,” Bertram said. “It feels un-European not to be informed what the procedure is.”
The commission’s internal IT section sent an email to workers on Thursday morning informing them that the app must be removed from official phones and devices by March 15. Bertram stated that the business wants the chance to learn about the commission’s worries before the deadline, to describe how they are protecting Europeans’ data, and to learn how the suspension can be lifted.
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