Belgium latest to ban TikTok on government devices

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Belgium is banning TikTok from government phones over worries about cybersecurity, privacy and misinformation, the country’s prime minister said Friday, mirroring recent action by other authorities in Europe and the U.S.

The Chinese-owned video sharing app will be temporarily prohibited from devices owned or paid for by the Belgium’s federal government for at least six months, according to a post on Alexander de Croo’s website.

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TikTok didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment. Owned by China’s ByteDance, the company has long maintained that it does not share data with the Chinese government and that its data is not held in China.

TikTok unveiled new measures this week to ease concerns about protecting user data in Europe.

Belgium has instituted a nationwide ban on TikTok for government-issued devices (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

But the European Union’s three main institutions and Denmark’s defense ministry have already ordered employees to remove the app from devices used for official business. Similar bans have been imposed in Canada and the U.S.

The tussle over TikTok is part of a wider global rivalry between China and the U.S. and its Western allies over technological and economic supremacy.

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De Croo said Belgium’s ban was based on warnings from the state security service and its cybersecurity center, which said the app could harvest user data and tweak algorithms to manipulate its news feed and content.

They also warned that TikTok could be compelled to carry out spying for Beijing, he said, without being more specific.

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“We are in a new geopolitical context where influence and surveillance between states have shifted to the digital world,” de Croo said in an online statement. “We must not be naive: TikTok is a Chinese company which today is obliged to cooperate with the intelligence services. This is the reality. Prohibiting its use on federal service devices is common sense.”