The number of governments that ban TikTok on the mobile devices of their workers due to suspicions of espionage is increasing. Following the announcement last week by the European Commission to uninstall the app from all corporate devices, the ban has reached Canada, the US and Denmark.
The White House has granted federal agencies 30 days on Monday to guarantee that their workers do not have the application of the TikTok social network on any government device.
The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, has indicated in a guide that contemplates few exceptions that agencies must identify the presence of the application, establish an internal process to limit the use, eliminate and deauthorize the facilities and prohibit Internet traffic of information technologies belonging to the agencies.
Within 90 days, agencies must include in contracts that the app cannot be used on devices and must cancel any contracts that require use of the app.
In December, TikTok — owned by Chinese company ByteDance — made a change to its privacy policy that gave Chinese employees access to data from European users, though it’s unclear exactly what data these employees have access to. and which employees are involved.
For its part, Canada announced on Monday that it will ban TikTok on all government-issued mobile devices, reflecting growing concerns from Western officials about the Chinese-owned video-sharing app.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it could be a first step towards a larger ban. “I suspect that as the significant step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones is taken, many Canadians, from businesses to individuals, will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps take decisions,” Trudeau said.
The first major institution to announce the blockade was the European Commission last week. The agency’s Information Technology service asked all employees of the EU executive to uninstall TikTok from their corporate devices, as well as personal devices that use corporate applications, according to the Euroactiv.com media.
The measure, the authorities noted, is aimed at protecting the Commission’s data and systems from potential cybersecurity threats.
In Europe, apart from the EC, the Danish parliament on Tuesday urged lawmakers and employees in the 179-member assembly not to have TikTok on work phones as a cybersecurity measure, saying “there is a risk of espionage.”
The president of the Danish parliament, Søren Gade, has affirmed that an email was sent from the body to legislators and employees with “a strong recommendation that they delete the TikTok application if they have previously installed it.”
The assembly acted after an assessment by Denmark’s Cyber ??Security Center, which had said there was a risk of espionage. The agency is part of Denmark’s foreign intelligence service. “We adapted accordingly,” Gade said in a statement.
Both China and the application itself have responded to the vetoes. The Chinese government accused the United States on Tuesday of “abusing its state power” and its “concept of national security” after Washington announced that it will veto the application of Chinese origin TikTok from government devices.
The Chinese foreign spokeswoman, Mao Ning, said today at a press conference that the United States “abuses” by “unjustifiably repressing companies from other countries.”
According to Mao, “The United States, a great power, shows a lack of self-confidence by fearing an app popular with young people.”
For its part, TikTok has rejected such a possibility and considered the decision adopted by the community institutions last week as “wrong” and based “on misconceptions”.
