Another Western country has banned the installation of the TikTok app on the company’s smartphones. The decision was made following warnings from national intelligence, which warned of a possible threat to national security.
Belgium has decided to temporarily ban the installation of TikTok on business devices used by civil servants at the federal level. This is another Western democracy that has big doubts about a Chinese social media app.
Belgium bans TikTok for officials
The ban was issued by the Belgian State National Security Council. The decision was made after “identifying a threat to the security of confidential information”, as reported by the national intelligence service VSSE together with the Central Cyber Security Center of the Central Design Bureau there.
- We cannot be naive: TikTok is a Chinese company that is currently required to cooperate with the intelligence agencies of the Middle Kingdom. This is reality. Therefore, the ban on the use of TikTok on federal government devices is obvious. […] The security of our information takes precedence here. - said Alexander De Croo, Prime Minister of Belgium.
The VSSE and CCB unanimously stressed that TikTok collects vast amounts of information about users, often without their knowledge or informed consent. Moreover, the application can manipulate the flow of data and content using its own algorithms. At the same time, in fact, TikTok is set to cooperate with Chinese intelligence.
The Belgian ban is currently expected to last six months, after which its effectiveness will be reassessed.
US gets rid of TikTok in administration
As we wrote in Wprost.pl, US government agencies were given until the last days of March to clear all federal devices from the TikTok application. The removal of the app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is the result of a lengthy debate about alleged spying.
This is the result of an earlier ban on TikTok in agencies by the US Congress that happened at the end of 2022. Politicians then passed a law preventing government employees from using the app if they do so on federally owned devices.
TikTok has previously been independently banned by several government agencies, including the White House, the Department of Defense, the State Department, or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Similar bans have also been independently established in Canada, the European Union and Taiwan.
Source: Wprost
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