The EU’s executive body has banned its thousands of employees from using TikTok over cybersecurity concerns, a decision the Chinese-owned social video app has criticized as “wrong” and based on “fundamental misconceptions”.
The European Commission sent an email to employees ordering them to remove the app from all work phones and devices, and from all personal property that uses the commission’s apps and email. Employees have until March 15 to comply.
A spokesperson said: “This measure is intended to protect the commission against cybersecurity threats and actions that can be exploited for cyberattacks against the commission’s corporate environment. The security developments of other social media platforms will also be kept under constant review.”
The commission said it had enacted the ban in accordance with its “strict internal cybersecurity policies” and longstanding advice to staff to “apply best practices when using social media platforms and maintain a high level of cyber awareness in their daily work”.
“Therefore, it is our duty to respond as soon as possible to potential cyber alerts,” the spokesperson said.
ByteDance, TikTok’s privately held parent company, denied there were any data security issues related to its products and said it wanted to “set the record straight” with the commission.
“We are disappointed with this decision, which we believe is wrong and based on fundamental misconceptions,” a TikTok spokesperson said. “We have contacted the commission to set the record straight and explain how we protect the data of the 125 million people across the EU who visit TikTok every month.”
ByteDance said it was continuing to strengthen its approach to security, including recently announcing the establishment of three new data centers in Europe to ensure that user information is stored locally and not exported to foreign jurisdictions, such as China.
The company is also reducing employee access to data: An internal report released by ByteDance in December found that four employees violated policies by inappropriately accessing TikTok user data in the US and ” minimize data flows out of Europe”..
Governments and officials in Europe and the US have taken steps similar to the commission to limit employee use of the app amid fears Beijing could access the data.
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Last summer, a lobbying campaign by Conservative MPs resulted in the closure of the @ukparliament TikTok account.
In the US, TikTok has been banned from all federal government devices, and most US states have imposed similar bans. Other countries, including the Netherlands, are evaluating whether to implement restrictions for government employees using TikTok.
