European Commission bans TikTok
Follows US federal ban last year
Staff at the European Union's executive branch can no longer use or download popular Chinese video app TikTok on devices they use for work, including personal phones.
The European Commission's corporate management board handed down the ban over cybersecurity concerns, meaning staff will have to remove the app if they already have it.
"The measure aims to protect the Commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyberattacks against the corporate environment of the Commission," said EU spokeswoman Sonya Gospodinova.
Employees will need to remove the app from any device they use for work, whether it's a corporate phone or their own device with official apps installed. They have until 15th March to do so.
After that date, corporate apps like email will not be available on any device with TikTok installed.
The European Commission has about 32,000 permanent and contract employees.
TikTok, owned by ByteDance, has been under scrutiny in the West since at least 2020, when then-President Donald Trump tried to ban the app as part of his trade war with China.
The company has long insisted that it has no links to the Chinese government and that user data is entirely safe - despite last year admitting that staff in China could access UK and EU user data.
The US federal government has also issued security warnings, banning the app on federal government-issued devices last year due to national security concerns.
FBI director Christopher Wray has claimed the Chinese government could "control the [TikTok] recommendation algorithm" to influence operations or "control software on millions of devices."
Government officials in Norway, the Netherlands and the UK have all voiced concerns about the Chinese app in the past.
Shou Zi Chew, TikTok's CEO, was in Brussels last month for talks with EU officials. He said the company was working on a "robust" system for processing user data in Europe.
The company has also promised to hold US data in the USA, according to the BBC.
Although the European Parliament has taken note of the Commission's move, it is not immediately following suit, instead saying in a statement that it is "constantly monitoring cybersecurity threats and actions."
"I ... hope that this will open a general discussion about cybersecurity within our institutions and how much the individual levels differ across Commission, Parliament and Council," said Czech MEP Markéta Gregorová.