The Federal Government has banned its employees from using the social media app TikTok on their computers, tablets and smartphones. The decision that was announced on Friday morning follows a ban on TikTok for Flemish Government employees that was announced on Thursday.
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Federal Government bans TikTok from employees' computers and smartphones
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In a tweet sent on Friday morning the Francophone Green Deputy Federal Prime Minister Georges Gilkinet announced that anyone working for the Federal Government would no longer be allowed to have TikTok installed on any internet-enabled devices that they also use for work purposes. It is however, as yet unclear whether the ban also applies to ministers and MPs.
The popular video app TikTok has been in the eye of a storm of criticism several weeks now. A number of western governments and security agencies suspect that the Chinese company behind the app, ByteDance, could be passing on sensitive information on TikTok users to the Chinese government. However, so far there is no concrete evidence that this is the case.
Meanwhile, Canada, the US federal authorities, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council are among public bodies to have banned those working for them from having TikTok installed on their computers and smartphones.
On Wednesday the Belgian intelligence services recommended that government employees here in Belgium should also remove the app if they have the app on a smartphone or computer that they also use for professional purposes.
On Friday morning the security services’ recommendation was discussed at a meeting of the National Security Council. There it was decided that the Federal Government would follow the European institutions and the Flemish Government in banning its employees from using TikTok.