Tiktok ban for EU officials: the federal government is waiting for the time being

European Commission employees must remove the social media app Tiktok from their work devices due to security concerns. The federal administration now wants to analyze this decision. At the moment there is no Tiktok ban on the company’s mobile phones.

“Even in the federal administration, individual apps can be banned at any time if necessary for security reasons,” the federal chancellery wrote at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. The federal administration will clarify with the responsible EU authorities what led to this decision.

As the federal competence center for cybersecurity, the National Center for Cybersecurity (NCSC) continues to closely monitor developments in all areas and can react quickly if necessary, the Federal Chancellery also notes.

Federal government employees use special apps on their mobile phones to access business applications and data such as emails, calendars, contacts and intranet platforms. It stores this company data in an isolated, secure environment – a so-called sandbox.

Tiktok denies allegations

On Thursday, the European Commission banned Tiktok on employees’ mobile phones. In addition, a Chinese group’s video app must be removed from private devices using EU Commission apps by March 15. According to an EU spokeswoman, the reason for the decision is concerns about cybersecurity.

Tiktok criticized the move. “We are disappointed by this decision, which we believe is misleading and based on fundamental misunderstandings,” a spokeswoman said. The European Commission has been contacted to correct this.

The Internet platform Tiktok, which belongs to the Chinese Bytedance group, has long been accused of insufficient data security and a lack of protection for young users. For example, it is feared that the Chinese state could gain access to Tiktok data. Tiktok denies that. (sda/dpa)