EC directs all employees to remove TikTok from work devices

LONDON: The European Commission (EC) on Thursday directed all employees to remove Chinese short-video making app TikTok from their corporate devices.

The Commission's Corporate Management Board decided to suspend the use of the TikTok application on its corporate devices and on personal devices enrolled in the Commission mobile device service.

"This measure aims to protect the Commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyber-attacks against the corporate environment of the Commission. The security developments of other social media platforms will also be kept under constant review," the EC said in a statement.

The suspension also extends to workers' personal devices where they are used for work purposes.

"The measure is in line with Commission strict internal cybersecurity policies for use of mobile devices for work-related communications. It complements long-standing Commission advice to staff to apply best practices when using social media platforms and keep high-level cyber awareness in their daily work," said the commission.

The US House of Representatives recently ordered its staff to delete TikTok from official work devices.

US Senator Michael Bennett this month urged Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to immediately remove TikTok from their app stores, calling it an unacceptable risk to national security.

TikTok is now the third-most popular social media app in the US, with over 100 million American users spending more than 80 minutes per day on the app.

The US also plans to ban Chinese short video-making app TikTok nationwide, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a vote soon on a bill to completely block the platform.

In 2020, India banned TikTok and several other Chinese apps for allegedly sharing user data with China.