TikTok: after the European Commission, the Parliament prohibits the social network to its staff

The European Parliament informed its staff on Tuesday (February 28th) that it was banning the Chinese social network TikTok on work devices, citing data security concerns after a similar measure by the European Commission last Thursday. From March 20, "Internet access to the social network from Parliament's computers will be blocked", is it specified in a letter from the Directorate General for Innovation and Technological Support (DG ITEC) of the Parliament to the attention of some 8,000 officials and agents of the institution. In addition, it is also “strongly” recommended that staff members remove TikTok from their personal devices.

The European Commission announced last week that its staff had until March 15 at the latest to uninstall the app from their work devices (Satellifacts, February 23). A similar measure must be taken by the European Council, the body representing the 27 member states.

Brussels follows in Washington's footsteps. In the United States, a law ratified by President Joe Biden in early January prohibits the downloading and use of TikTok on the devices of US federal state officials. About twenty American states have taken a similar measure for their own employees. And, in Congress, a bill under discussion could even lead to a total ban on the application in the United States. In the EU, the Chinese group ByteDance, parent company of TikTok, is the subject of an investigation by the Irish Privacy Authority, which suspects it of breaching European data protection law (GDPR) regarding the processing of children's personal data and data transfers to China.