The European Union Commission has joined the US governments in blocking the use of TikTok on official devices, as security concerns heighten the Chinese-owned social media platform.
The decision was communicated to employees on Thursday via email by the EU executive’s IT service, which requested that they uninstall the app from all government-owned devices as well as personal devices using corporate apps, per EURACTIV.
“To protect the Commission’s data and increase its cybersecurity, the EC [European Commission] Corporate Management Board has decided to suspend the TikTok application on corporate devices and personal devices enrolled in the Commission mobile device services,” said the email.
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EU employees were asked to delete the app from their devices as soon as possible and no later than 15 March, or watch corporate apps like the Commission email and Skype for Business disappear as a penalty for non-compliance.
TikTok is facing growing apathy in the West as governments’ concern that the Chinese government could use the short-form video platform as a backdoor to harness users’ private data increases. The EU Commission is the latest to take a step to curtail the potential threat that the situation poses to its security.
The Commission said the measure is aimed at protecting its data and systems from potential cybersecurity threats, which the US has warned are possible through TikTok.
The company has repeatedly assured the authorities in the West that the personal data of users is protected, denying allegations that it is accessible in China. It expressed its disappointment over the EU Commission’s decision.
“We are disappointed with this decision, which we believe to be misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions. We have contacted the Commission to set the record straight and explain how we protect the data of the 125 million people across the EU who come to TikTok every month,” a TikTok spokesperson told EURACTIV.
However, TikTok’s efforts to mitigate the apathy, which accelerated under former US president Donald Trump, have failed.
Several US states have followed Washington’s step, enacting laws to stop employees from installing and using the app on government’s devices. TikTok’s ordeal was amplified last November after the company admitted that the personal data of users worldwide is accessible in the Chinese headquarters.
The admission followed a BuzzFeed’s report in June last year that TikTok’s US users’ data was accessed in China, and revelations from Forbes that the app was being used to spy on journalists.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company headquartered in Beijing. Under the Chinese Communist Party, every company is subject to the rule which makes releasing information to the authorities at request compulsory.
TikTok said last year in response to BuzzFeed’s findings that the company is working to clear all security doubts about its operation.
“We know we’re among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint, and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of U.S. user data,” TikTok spokeswoman Maureen Shanahan told the outlet. “That’s why we hire experts in their fields, continually work to validate our security standards, and bring in reputable, independent third parties to test our defenses.”
But TikTok’s efforts to separate itself from the situation have failed to calm the scrutiny. The company said it “has long stored US user data in our own data centers in the US and Singapore” and takes the responsibility to “protect against unauthorized access to user data” seriously.
Although no European government has banned the use of TikTok on official devices, the trust is waning to that point. Top EU officials told TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew last month after a meeting, that the company had a long way to go to regain their trust.