Fraud Management & Cybercrime , Social Media
TikTok Faces Further Bans in Europe
France Is Latest Country to Impose a Ban on TikTok Use in Government Networks
The French government is the latest to announce a ban on the use of TikTok on government devices, citing data privacy and cybersecurity concerns.
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The country's Ministry of Transformation and Public Service on Friday announced a ban on all "recreational apps" from government-issued mobile devices, to take effect immediately.
The ban is not exclusive to the short-video app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, but it comes amid of a wave of governments ordering civil servants to ensure that TikTok isn't on their official devices. The governments of Italy, the Netherlands and Norway announced last week they are also considering TikTok bans.
TikTok arguably faces an existential challenge from the U.S. government, where hardening national security concerns have led to severe limits on the sale of Chinese telecom and security camera technology. U.S. President Joe Biden in December signed legislation banning TikTok from government devices and is actively pressuring TikTok owner ByteDance to divest (see: TikTok CEO Aims to Assure Lawmakers Americans' Data Is Safe).
The French government took action after an analysis by the country's cyber agencies determined that "recreational apps do not meet sufficient "levels of cybersecurity and protection of data to be deployed on administrative equipment," said Stanislas Guerini, the minister of transformation and public service.
French officials told state-owned Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press that the ban includes other social media apps such as Twitter and Instagram, gaming apps such as Candy Crush, streaming apps such as Netflix, and dating apps.
The ban doesn't apply for the purposes of public communications. In fact, Guerini tweeted about the ban. On TikTok, the official account of the government of France remained live, although the last video appears to have been posted on March 16.
