These prohibitions arise while Tiktok, whose Chinese parent company is Chinese, is the subject of increasing surveillance on the part of Westerners due to fears that Beijing can access user data around the world.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
The European Parliament informed, Tuesday, February 28, its staff that he prohibited the Chinese social network Tiktok on professional devices, invoking concerns about data security, after a similar measure of the European Commission, last Thursday . The ultrapopular application of short and viral videos, owned by the Chinese company bytedance, is more and more scrutinized by Westerners who fear that Beijing can thus access user data from around the world.
The president of Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and the secretary general, Alessandro Chiocchetti, decided that the Tiktok application could no longer be used on professional devices, such as computers, mobile phones or tablets, from March 20 . “On this date, internet access to the social network since the computers of the Parliament will be blocked,” it is specified in a letter from the Directorate General of Innovation and Technological Support (DG ITEC) of Parliament for attention of some eight thousand officials and agents of the institution. In addition, it is also “strongly” recommended to staff members to withdraw Tiktok from their personal devices.
The European Commission announced last week that its staff had until March 15 at the latest to uninstall the application of their professional devices. A similar measure must be taken by the European Council, the body representing the 27 member states. 2>
Brussels follows suit in Washington
Brussels followed out in Washington. In the United States, a law ratified by the president, Joe Biden in early January prohibits the download and use of Tiktok on the aircraft of the Federal US Federal State. About twenty American states have taken a measure of this type for their own employees. And, at the Congress, a bill under discussion could even lead to the total prohibition of application in the United States.
In the European Union, Bytedance is the subject of an investigation by the Irish Privacy Protective Authority, which suspects it of breaking European data protection legislation (RGPD) in matters of processing of personal data from children and data transfers to China.
Tiktok recognized in November that some employees in China could access European user data, and admitted in December that employees had used this data to track journalists. But the group fiercely denies any control or access by the Chinese government to its data.