EU Commission Reportedly Bans TikTok on Its Staff Devices

EU Commission reportedly bans TikTok on its staff devices. The EC is now the latest government organization to ban TikTok for security reasons.

EU Commission Reportedly Bans TikTok on Its Staff Devices

EU Commission Reportedly Bans TikTok on Its Staff Devices

The executive arm of the European Union, the European Commission has now ordered its staff to remove the stratospherically popular social media platform TikTok from official devices and smartphones due to security concerns.

The diktat as per BBC News which has been given a deadline of March 15, 2023, is coming as TikTok continues to face pressure from the west due to allegations of its parent company, ByteDance sending international user data to the state government, which it can be forced to do according to local laws.

ByteDance Claims It Is Not Treating Data in the Manner World Governments Presume

And despite the continued assertion of ByteDance that it is not treating data in this manner, which ultimately would amount to the social media platform being a mass surveillance tool. This normally ought to raise fears in regard to identity theft as well as the general sanctity of the privacy of an individual online.

The European Union’s Reaction to the Development

EU spokesperson, Sonya Gospodinova said that the decision had been taken by the corporate management board of the EC.

“[It] aims to protect the Commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyberattacks against the corporate environment of the commission.”

Workers who do not comply with the new rule have now been warned that they will reportedly be locked out of the official applications of the EC and this is including the email client of the EC, and the video conferencing software Skype for Business. And given the fact that the European Commission employs around 32,000 people, it really could be disruptive.

TikTok Can’t Access European User Data According To ByteDance

And despite its admission in the previous year that TikTok can’t access European user data, ByteDance has strenuously denied the need for the bans that world governments and organizations including the Netherlands and the US have enacted or have publicly considered enacting in it in more recent years.

And as noted by the BBC, the chief executive of TikTok Shou Zi Chew back in January claimed that the social media networking platform was working on a “robust” system to safely and securely process European user data following censure from officials of the European Union.

A US-Wide Ban on TikTok Was Considered In 2020

A US-wide ban on the service was considered back in 2020, although this appears to have been axed. A ban across India however came into force that very same year.

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