Belgian federal employees will be prohibited from using the Chinese-owned video platform TikTok on their work devices, announced Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Friday.
De Croo indicated that the national security council had raised concerns about the extensive data collection practices of TikTok, which is operated by the Chinese company ByteDance. He highlighted the obligation of the company to comply with requests from Chinese intelligence services.
“This is the reality,” the prime minister commented in a formal statement.
“Therefore, it is reasonable to ban the use of TikTok on devices issued by the federal government. The protection of our information must take precedence,” he stated.
TikTok expressed its disappointment with the decision, characterizing it as based on “fundamentally wrong information.”
The company defended itself by asserting that it keeps user data in the United States and Singapore and is in the process of establishing data centers across Europe.
A representative for TikTok remarked, “The Chinese government cannot compel other sovereign nations to share data that is stored on their territory.”
Last month, both the European Commission and the European Parliament implemented a ban on TikTok for their staff following rising apprehensions regarding the potential for the Chinese government to access users’ data or promote its interests.
Authorities in Beijing have consistently denied any such motives.
This past Thursday, Belgium’s Flemish regional government announced similar restrictions on TikTok for their staff, while Prime Minister De Croo encouraged other regional governments to adopt identical measures.
The video-sharing application has already faced bans on work devices in both the United States and Canada, and it is completely prohibited in India.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
