The executive arm of the European Union (EU), the European Commission (EC), has ordered its staff to remove the popular social media platform TikTok from smartphones and official devices, citing security concerns.
According to BBC News (opens in a new tab), the dictation, which has a deadline of March XNUMX, XNUMX, comes as TikTok continues to face Western pressure due to the assertions of its owners, the Chinese company ByteDance , to send international user data to the state government, which it may be required to do under local laws.
Despite ByteDance's ongoing assertions that it does not process data like this, which would amount to turning TikTok into a mass surveillance tool, this should raise concerns about identity theft and the general sanctity of an individual's privacy in line.
TikTok, the EU and you
EU spokeswoman Sonya Gospodinova stated that the resolution was taken by the EC's management council.
" is intended to shield the Commission from cybersecurity threats and actions that could be used to carry out cyberattacks against the Commission's business environment.
Workers who do not comply with the new rule are warned that they will be banned from accessing official EC applications, including the EC mail user and Skype for Business video conferencing software. Since the EC employs about thirty-two people, this could be disruptive.
Despite agreeing last year that TikTok can access European user data, ByteDance strongly denies the need for the bans that world governments, including the US and the Netherlands, have enacted or publicly considered enacting in recent years. years.
As the BBC points out, the director of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, claimed in January that the social media platform was working on a "robust" system to safely handle the data of European users, after censorship by EU officials. .
In XNUMX, a US-wide ban on the service was considered, although that appears to have been reversed. The exact same year an India-wide ban came into effect.