France has banned the use of popular social networking sites, including TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram on government employees’ devices over security concerns.
According to the Ministry of Public Sector Transformation and the Civil Service of France, the ban will come into force immediately. Stanislas Guerini, Minister of Transformation and Public Service of France, said that the French government decided to partially ban these apps on government employees’ mobile phones because of concerns about insufficient data security measures.
Stanislas Guerini reportedly said on Friday, “In order to guarantee the cybersecurity of our administrations and civil servants, the government has decided to ban recreational applications such as TikTok on the professional phones of civil servants.”
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He said that many countries already banned the use of the Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok on their administrations’ phones. He further revealed that recreational applications do not contain sufficient levels of cybersecurity and data protection in order to protect the sensitive data of the administration.
Many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand have already banned TikTok on government devices over security concerns.
Earlier, Oliver Dowden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office of Britain, said that the UK banned TikTok on government devices over data security concerns.
New Zealand also expressed concern over TikTok. Subsequently, New Zealand banned TikTok on government corporate devices. Parliamentary Service Chief Executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero raised questions about the Chinese government’s potential to obtain sensitive data through ByteDance.
The United States also threatened to ban TikTok unless ByteDance divest its stakes in it. Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, also testified before the US Congress over this matter. He reportedly said that TikTok does not share data with the Chinese government.
