There is a wave of criticism against the app.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Cruz announced Friday that his government has decided to ban the TikTok video app from the official mobile phones of civil servants for the first six months.
Belgium thus became the last European government to take restrictive action against TikTok due to questionable considerations for user data privacy.
“Don’t indulge. TikTok is a Chinese company and has a duty to cooperate with Chinese intelligence agencies. This is the reality,” De Croo said when announcing his move against the video-sharing app. Told.
However, Belgium’s decision does not affect the private mobile devices of civil servants and parliamentarians.
The European Council (the European Union, which represents the countries of the EU) and the European Commission (the EU’s enforcement agency) have already instructed employees to remove the TikTok app from their work devices.
Chinese company ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has come under close scrutiny in the West over suspicions that Chinese authorities may be accessing user data.
In 2022, the US will ban the app from federal devices, and some US lawmakers are looking to ban TikTok from operating nationwide.
In November, TikTok confirmed that some staff in China could access the data of European users.
However, the company has gone to great lengths to allay concerns and has indicated it has made reforms to ensure user privacy.
Source: Diario.Elmundo
