In a move that mirrors recent actions taken by other authorities in Europe and the United States, the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced on Friday that employees of the Belgian federal government will no longer be permitted to use the video app TikTok on their work phones. TikTok is owned by the Chinese government.
According to a post that was made on Alexander de Croo’s website, the video sharing application that is owned by the Chinese government will be temporarily banned from devices that are owned or paid for by the federal government of Belgium for at least six months.
TikTok Disappointed
TikTok has stated that it is “disappointed at this suspension,” claiming that the decision was made “based on fundamental misinformation about our company.” According to the statement made by the company, they are “readily available to meet with officials to address any concerns and set the record straight on misconceptions.”
ByteDance, a company based in China, is the owner of TikTok.
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In 2020, the company relocated its headquarters to Singapore. The company made a concerted effort to distance itself from its Chinese origins by claiming that its parent company is incorporated in a country other than China and that its majority shareholders are global institutional investors.
However, the three primary institutions of the European Union and the defense ministry of Denmark have already instructed their staff members to delete the application from any devices that are used for official business. Both the United States and Canada have implemented bans on the same substance.
The struggle over TikTok is just one facet of a much larger global competition for technological and economic preeminence that involves China, the United States, and their Western allies.
De Croo stated that the decision to ban the app was based on warnings from Belgium’s state security service and its cybersecurity center. These warnings stated that the app could harvest user data and tweak algorithms in order to manipulate its news feed and content.
Spying for China
They also warned that TikTok could be forced to carry out spying for Beijing, he said, although he did not provide any further details on this matter.
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In an online statement, de Croo said, “We are in a new geopolitical context where influence and surveillance between states have shifted to the digital world.” “We are in a new geopolitical context,” “We can’t afford to be naïve: TikTok is a Chinese company that, in today’s world, is compelled to work together with the various intelligence agencies. This is the truth of the situation. It makes perfect sense to forbid its use on devices used by the federal government.
TikTok stated that user data is stored in the United States and Singapore and pointed to new measures to ease European concerns by storing user data in European data centers. In addition, TikTok stated that it stores user data in the United States and Singapore.
The company said in a statement that the Chinese government is unable to compel another sovereign nation to provide data stored on that nation’s territory because China is not a sovereign nation.