EU Commission, Council ban TikTok from staff phones for security reasons

The European Union’s executive branch and the EU Council have announced a ban on the video-sharing app TikTok from staff phones. This comes as the Chinese-owned app is under scrutiny from governments due to concerns that Beijing may use the app to harvest data or advance its interests.

EU industry chief Thierry Breton announced the ban by the EU Commission but did not say whether the bloc’s executive wing was subject to incidents involving the app. An official also said that the EU Council, which brings together representatives of EU countries to lay out policy priorities, also had to uninstall the app from staff phones that have access to EU Council services.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company Bytedance, expressed disappointment and surprise that the EU Commission did not inform them before making such a ban. The EU Commission said the ban would apply to both work and personal phones and devices. TikTok is already banned in India, and the US Senate passed a bill back in December barring the app from the phones of federal employees.

“To increase its cybersecurity, the Commission’s Corporate Management Board has decided to suspend the use of the TikTok application on its corporate devices and on personal devices enrolled in the Commission mobile service,” said the EU Commission in a statement.

“This measure aims to protect the Commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited in cyber-attacks against the corporate environment of the Commission.”

The European Parliament said it was aware of the EU Commission’s decision. The EU executive also said security developments in other social media platforms would also be under constant review.

EU countries failed to reach an agreement on a new set of sanctions against Russia, missing a deadline that coincides with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Diplomatic sources told Reuters that the 27 EU countries unanimously voted to introduce new sanctions and that Poland blocked the package over the proposed exemptions to a ban on EU imports of Russian synthetic rubber.

Polish diplomats said the exemptions were so big that the sanctions would end up becoming ineffective. Other sources said the exemptions were proposed to accommodate Italy and were supported by Germany.