Sat 25 March 2023:
Because of concerns about inadequate data security measures, France has banned the “recreational” use of TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and other apps on government employees’ phones.
The ban will go into effect immediately, according to a tweet from the Ministry of Public Sector Transformation and the Civil Service on Friday.
“In order to guarantee the cybersecurity of our administrations and civil servants, the government has decided to ban recreational applications such as TikTok on the professional phones of civil servants,” Stanislas Guerini said on Friday.
He added that for several weeks, several of France’s European and international partners have adopted measures to restrict or ban the downloading and installation of or the use of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok by their administrations.
Guerini said recreational applications do not have sufficient levels of cybersecurity and data protection in order to be deployed on administrations’ equipment, adding that exemptions can be given for professional reasons, such as institutional communication of an administration.
The White House, the UK parliament, the Dutch and Belgian administrations, the New Zealand parliament, the governments of Canada, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, and Jordan are just a few of the governments and institutions that have banned TikTok in recent weeks.
US lawmakers and national security officials have been the most vocal in voicing their concerns about the alleged security risks posed by TikTok. They claim that the Chinese government may be able to access user data collected by the app.
After FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in November that TikTok poses risks to national security, calls to ban it from government devices gained momentum.
The Commission and the Council, the two largest policy-making bodies in the European Union, banned TikTok from staff phones late last month due to security concerns.
Global worries have grown over the possibility that ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, could give the Chinese government access to users’ contact information and location data.
During questioning by US lawmakers on Thursday, the company’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, denied claims that TikTok or ByteDance are instruments of the Chinese government. The business has repeatedly stated that international institutional investors own 60% of ByteDance.
China enacted a law in 2017 requiring businesses to provide the government with any personal information relevant to the nation’s security. There is no proof that TikTok has disclosed such data, but due to the enormous amount of user data it gathers, fears abound.
Beijing has charged that Washington is stifling TikTok and disseminating false information.
Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, claimed earlier this month that the US had not yet provided proof that TikTok posed a threat to its national security and was abusing its authority to repress foreign companies by using the pretext of data security.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
