An email sent this Thursday morning by the European Commission asks its employees to immediately remove the TikTok application from professional and personal telephones.
Fears around TikTok seem to have crossed the Atlantic. While the United States tries to ban the Chinese application from their territory, the European Commission is concerned in turn. She asked her employees by email to remove the platform from their phones, both professional and personal.
“In order to protect the Commission’s data and strengthen its cybersecurity, the EC Management Board has decided to suspend the TikTok application on corporate devices and personal devices registered with the Commission’s mobile device services. Commission”, indicates the email consulted by the site Euroactiv.
Avoid any cybersecurity threat
It is specified that the members of the Commission must remove TikTok from their devices as soon as possible and no later than March 15. If they do not meet this deadline, the applications used in the context of their function, such as the Commission’s emails or Skype for Business, will be deactivated.
This request follows doubts about the protection of the data provided to the Chinese application. The objective of the European Commission is to secure its data and systems from cybersecurity threats.
In November, TikTok acknowledged that certain personal data of users around the world, including France, is viewable by TikTok employees. Until now, no country had followed the example of the United States. Since the beginning of the year, the application has been banned on the devices of American officials.
In January, the boss of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, had however seemed inclined to submit to the new European rules. He had participated in a meeting in Brussels to better understand the obligations imposed by Europe under the Digital Service Act (DSA). A discussion with Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, had even been organized.
“The interest of the proper functioning of the institution”
“As an institution, the European Commission has, from the start of its mandate, emphasized cybersecurity, the protection of its employees and all those who work” for the institution, observed before the press Thierry Breton this Thursday.
“We are under no obligation to give the reasons for which we take [de telles] decisions in the interest of the proper functioning of the institution”, he insisted, indicates AFP.
“It is a decision clearly based on the assessment of the situation, but we will not give any details” on the exact motivations, nor on the measures expected for a possible lifting of this “suspension”, added a spokesperson for the Commission.
