Alexander De Croo, the prime minister of Belgium, on Friday forbade government employees from using TikTok on their work phones, making his nation the most recent to take action against the Chinese app.
As a result of worries that Beijing’s government would exploit the video-sharing platform to gain access to private user information, a number of national governments in Europe have already prohibited TikTok for government employees.
The institutions in charge of the European Union recently instructed personnel to remove the software from personal smartphones and laptops used for work.
We shouldn’t be foolish, De Croo warned: TikTok is a Chinese company that is currently required to work with the Chinese intelligence agencies.
The truth is that.
The action by Belgium, which will be in effect for a trial period of six months, is the result of a risk analysis of potential espionage by the nation’s cybersecurity and intelligence services.
It does not cover the use of the video-sharing software on government employees’, ministers’, or MPs’ cell phones.
The app, which is owned by a Chinese business by the name of ByteDance, has come under increasing pressure from Western nations, notably the European Union and the United States.
On Wednesday, TikTok announced a new initiative to allay European concerns about security. The company said it was collaborating with a European security firm to monitor and assess how it handles data.
According to TikTok, starting in 2023, its European user data will be housed at two facilities in Dublin and one in Norway.
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