France Is the Latest Country to Ban TikTok On Gov’t Devices
Paris, France. Credit: Anthony TanDays after TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before Congress, France has become the latest country to ban use of the video-sharing app on government devices.
French Minister for Public Transformation and Civil Service Stanislas Guerini recently confirmed the development on social media and attributed the ban to “cybersecurity and the protection of personal data”. The US, UK, EU, and Canada have also banned TikTok on government devices (with Jordan and India banning the platform altogether).
Of course, logic suggests that any app so utterly unsuitable for use by elected officials and their teams also poses a significant threat to the general public. In the States alone, the NSA, FCC, FBI, Department of Justice and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have raised national security concerns about ByteDance’s proprietary service.
Part of ByteDance is owned by the Chinese Communist Party, which can force any domestic company to disclose information (including sensitive) at its discretion. In addition, the Beijing-headquartered company has admitted that its employees unlawfully accessed user data. Meanwhile, some have claimed that the CCP is using TikTok “as a propaganda tool,” including by influencing media trends and related discussions to its advantage on the world stage.
This widespread state opposition to TikTok — which the state of Indiana is suing for allegedly exposing children to explicit content — set the framework for Shou Zi Chew’s aforementioned testimony before Congress last week. And since his comments have clearly failed to stem the tide of legislative scrutiny, it’s worth keeping an eye on the possibility that a nationwide ban could unleash sweeping TikTok bans in key markets around the world.
Consequently, France’s ban on TikTok (as well as other “leisure” apps, it seems), highlighted above, on all government devices is important for a number of reasons. According to a translation of a French-language press release by Guerini’s agency, the restriction came into effect “immediately.”
“For several weeks, several of our European and international partners have taken measures restricting or prohibiting the downloading and installation of the TikTok application by their administrations,” reads part of the translated text. “After analyzing the problems, especially security, the government has decided to ban downloading and installing [of] Recreational applications on business phones made available to officials.
“Indeed, recreational applications do not have the level of cybersecurity and data protection sufficient to be deployed on management devices,” the document continues. “These apps can therefore pose a risk to the privacy of these administrations and their officials.”
On the music side, TikTok remains locked in long-running licensing talks with the Big Three, and a recent report suggested the service had seen user numbers fall in Australia after restrictions on the availability of popular tracks were imposed.