Following data protection concerns, the European Parliament has instructed staff to remove TikTok from work-related devices, after similar actions by the EU’s main governing bodies last week.
According to a note sent Tuesday, the parliament’s president, Roberta Metsola, and secretary-general, Alessandro Chiocchetti, have agreed that TikTok will not be utilized or installed on staff devices like mobile phones, tablets, or computers beginning March 20.
“As of this date, web access to TikTok through our corporate network… will also be blocked,” the parliament’s directorate-general for innovation and technological support said in the note to around 8,000 of the institution’s employees.
It also “strongly advised” MEPs and their employees to uninstall TikTok from their personal devices.
For cybersecurity concerns, the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, and the European Council, which represents the EU’s 27 member states, imposed a similar restriction on Thursday.
There have been a series of similar actions in the past few days following in Washington’s footsteps against the popular video-sharing platform controlled by Chinese business ByteDance.
The West is especially concerned about China’s access to sensitive user data all across the world, while TikTok emphatically denies Beijing has any influence or access.
In November, TikTok confirmed some personnel in China can access the data of European users.
Following a restriction imposed by the US Congress late last year, the White House on Monday directed federal agencies 30 days to delete TikTok from all government-issued devices.
On the same day, the Canadian government banned TikTok on all phones and other devices, claiming similar data security concerns in the midst of fragile Canadian-Chinese relations.
In Europe, Denmark’s parliament announced Tuesday it had urged MPs and other staff to delete the software from mobile devices because of the “potential of surveillance”.
TikTok did not respond immediately to the fresh parliament prohibition, but it asserted last week that it protects the data of its 125 million monthly users in the European Union.
