In November, TikTok admitted that some employees in China could access European users’ data.
Brussels:
The European Parliament has asked employees to purge TikTok from the devices they use for work because of data security concerns, following similar moves by the EU’s main governing bodies last week.
According to a note released on Tuesday, the speaker of parliament, Roberta Metsola, and the secretary-general, Alessandro Chiocchetti, decided that from March 20, TikTok should not be used or installed on staff devices such as mobile phones, tablets or laptops.
“As of this date, web access to TikTok through our corporate network will also be blocked,” Parliament’s Directorate General for Innovation and Technical Assistance said in a note to the institute’s approximately 8,000 employees.
It “strongly recommended” MEPs and their staff to remove TikTok from their personal devices.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, and the European Council, which represents the 27 EU member states, ordered similar restrictions on Thursday over cyber security fears.
Several similar actions have taken place over the past few days, following in Washington’s footsteps against the popular video-sharing platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
The West is particularly concerned about what access China has to sensitive user data around the world, but TikTok vehemently denies any control or access by Beijing.
In November, TikTok admitted that some employees in China could access European users’ data.
The White House on Monday gave federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from all government-issued equipment after the US Congress ordered the ban late last year.
The same day, the Canadian government banned TikTok from all phones and other devices, citing similar data security concerns amid tensions in Canadian-Chinese relations.
In Europe, the Danish parliament announced on Tuesday that it has asked lawmakers and all staff to remove the app from mobile devices because of the “risk of espionage”.
TikTok did not immediately comment on the latest Parliament ban, but insisted last week that it protects the data of its 125 million monthly users in the European Union.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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