“RISK OF SPYING”: EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT TO BAN TIKTOK ON STAFF PHONES

Wed 01 March 2023:

For security reasons, the European Parliament has decided to ban the Chinese short video-sharing app TikTok from staff phones, becoming the third EU institution to do so after the European Commission and the European Council.

An EU official said on Tuesday that the planned ban will also apply to private devices with Parliament email and other network access installed, and that the decision is expected to be announced soon.

The European Council, the EU’s main legislative branch, and the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, both banned their employees from installing TikTok on work-related devices last week, citing data protection concerns.

TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is based in China, has faced increasing scrutiny by Western countries in recent months over fears about how much access Beijing has to user data.

Denmark’s parliament also announced on Tuesday that it had asked MPs and all staff to remove the video-sharing platform from mobile devices because of the “risk of spying”.

Canada ban Tiktok on all government devices

Canada banned TikTok from all government devices Monday for security reasons and it could be the start of a further crackdown, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

“This may be a first step, it may be the only step we need to take, but every step of the way we’re going to be making sure that we’re keeping Canadians safe,” Trudeau told reporters on Monday shortly after the ban was announced.

“Obviously we take very seriously the freedom of expression, the freedom of Canadians to engage how they want online,” he said. “But we also have very important principles around protection of data, protection of Canadians’ safety and security that we will always step up for.”

CANADIAN GOVERNMENT BANS TIKTOK ON ALL GOVERNMENT DEVICES

US takes ‘critical step’

The moves by the European Parliament and Danish Parliament come a day after the White House gave all federal agencies 30 days to wipe TikTok off all US government devices.

The US Office of Management and Budget called the announced guidance a “critical step forward in addressing the risks presented by the app to sensitive government data”.

Some US agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and State, already have restrictions in place and the White House does not allow TikTok on its devices. The US guidance called on the rest of the federal government to follow suit within 30 days.

Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said that there had been long-standing worries in the US capital about the use of TikTok and whether it is utilised to spy on the country.

US: NATIONWIDE BAN ON TIKTOK INCHES CLOSER TO REALITY

She said that the negotiations over how to regulate TikTok for the US public continued among American politicians.

In response to the US move to ban TikTok, China’s government said that the move revealed Washington’s own insecurities and was an abuse of state power.

The US government “has been overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress other countries’ companies”, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing.

“How unsure of itself can the US, the world’s top superpower, be to fear a young person’s favourite app to such a degree?”

TikTok says the concerns are fueled by misinformation and denies using the app to spy on Americans.

TIKTOK NOT OBLIGATED TO PROVIDE US USERS’ DATA TO CHINESE GOV’T – CEO

TikTok also accused the European Commission last week of failing to consult it over the decision to ban it from staff phones on cybersecurity grounds.

Canada on Monday also announced a ban on TikTok from government-issued devices, saying it presents an “unacceptable” level of risk to privacy and security.

India and Taiwan recently took decisions to block TikTok from government devices, too.

The actions taken by governments do not immediately affect members of the general public, who use TikTok on private or company-owned devices.