In order to “further strengthen” the institution’s cybersecurity measures and not because of “an immediate threat”, the European Commission (EC) and the Council of the European Union adopted the decision to prohibit the use of TikTok on devices institutions, in addition to the personal ones of their workers, who use them to access the institution’s services within a period of 15 days.
The European Commission (EC) and the Council of the European Union announced this Thursday that they will dispense with the Chinese TikTok app on their official mobile devices at a time when they want to better protect security against the increase in cyber attacks.
The EC prohibited this Friday, February 24, its workers, Use TikTok on institutional phones and asked them to remove it before March 15 if they have the application installed.
The measure, however, will be “constantly” reviewed, so in the future it could be “reversible,” said Commission spokeswoman Sonya Gospodinova.
Prohibit using TikTok on EU Commission and Council phones
The Commissioner for Budget and Administration of the European ComissionJohannes Hahn, whose department has taken the decision to ban the use of tiktok in institutional devices, he pointed out that it is not because there is “an immediate threat”, but rather to “further strengthen” the institution’s cybersecurity measures.
“I can reassure you that there is no immediate threat, but we are constantly monitoring the situation. It is no secret that we are under an increased cybersecurity threat and therefore we have to take steps to prevent anything in the future,” Hahn said.
In the same line, the Council of the European Union will uninstall TikTok from their corporate mobile devices and will ask their workers to remove it from their personal ones that they use to access the institution’s services, a measure similar to the one announced this Thursday by the Community Executive.
As indicated, the Secretariat of this institution, “continuously reviews its cybersecurity measures in close collaboration with the other EU institutions.”
TikTok regrets the decision of the European Union
For his part, TikTok requested a meeting with the European Commission to “set the record straight” about your own security measures . According to the company said in a statement, it is “surprised” that the institution has not previously contacted them or “offered any explanation.”
The company assured that it wants to explain to the EC how it protects the data of the 125 million people who use the application every month in the EU.
It noted that it is establishing three centers in Europe to locally store user data, “further reducing employee access to it and minimizing data flows outside of Europe.”
This is not the only application that the Community Executive has prohibited, since it previously also vetoed the Zoom video call application, but it does allow other similar ones such as Skype for Business or Webex.
The United States had already banned TikTok
Brussels has been focusing its attention on TikTok and the rest of the big tech companies. In this context, in January he met with the CEO of the Chinese company, Shou Zi Chew, whom he threatened with ban its use in the European Union if it does not prevent minors from having access to “potentially deadly videos” and if it does not prevent user data from being transferred to third countries.
The European Comission It thus follows in the footsteps of the United States, where Congress has prohibited legislators and their employees from installing the application on their official phones.
A measure that several states in that country have also adopted, including Texas, Alabama or Tennessee, as well as institutions such as the University of Florida.
The controversy in the United States over the use of the Chinese application has worsened after the recent revelation that ByteDance, the company that owns TikTokused the social network to spy on journalists.