(PatriotWise.com) — The European Commission has told its staff to delete TikTok from their devices. It applies to both government-issued and personally-owned machines. The move is prompted by security concerns and the risk of Chinese spying. Europe now joins the United States in banning the video-sharing platform for government employees. Around 32,000 Commission workers were told to remove the app from devices in an email on February 23rd. The email stated, “To protect Commission’s data and increase its cybersecurity, the EC Corporate Management Board has decided to suspend the TikTok application on corporate devices and personal devices enrolled in the Commission mobile device service.”
The Chinese social media platform is now one of the most popular in the world. It is particularly fashionable among young people who have been turning away from Facebook and other major applications. It has become controversial, and come to the attention of governments, partly because of its data-gathering capabilities and its algorithms which many people believe are manipulating content to propagandize for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Authorities around the world have taken notice of the platform and some have banned it outright, while others have placed restrictions on its use. Canada has prohibited it from government devices, as has Taiwan. India, which was TikTok’s biggest marketplace, has banned it completely. Muslim countries including Iran and Pakistan have proscribed it citing incompatibility with their values.
In the United States, federal government workers cannot have it installed on their work-issued devices, and Floridian Senator Marco Rubio called for an outright ban in the US last year. The directors of both the FBI and CIA have told Congress that the device does pose a threat to American data safety and is a potential spying apparatus for the CCP.
There are around 85 million daily TikTok users in the United States. Approximately 60% of these are aged between 16 and 24. In 2022, the number of users worldwide surpassed 1 billion.
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