Haro on TikTok and “recreational applications”: France on Friday banned the downloading and use of the Chinese social network on the work phones of 2.5 million civil servants. It thus follows in the footsteps of many Western countries.
These applications present “risks in terms of cybersecurity and data protection of public officials and the administration”, concluded the entourage of the Minister of Public Service Stanislas Guerini following an analysis carried out by the National Agency for Information Systems Security (Anssi) and the Interministerial Digital Department (Dinum).
The precise number of business phones affected by the ban was not immediately available.
Among the applications now banned is “the triptych of gaming applications like Candy Crush, streaming like Netflix and recreational like TikTok”, explains Stanislas Guerini’s entourage.
Twitter also blacklisted
Twitter, whose content moderation policy has been debated since its takeover by Elon Musk, is also blacklisted, he says. However, the government has not yet drawn up a precise list of prohibited applications, which would apply to all ministries.
In principle, therefore, all applications that can be considered recreational will be banned. Only a few individual derogations may be granted for institutional communication needs, for example, according to the ministry.
The ban, notified to the various ministries through a “binding” instruction according to the government, comes into force immediately, and does not concern the personal telephones of state officials.
In case of violation of this new rule, no unified system of sanctions is foreseen at this stage, possible measures being left to the discretion of each ministry.
Previous
The White House, European Commission, Canadian and British governments recently banned their officials from using TikTok on their work phones.
On Thursday, app boss Shou Zi Chew was strangled for several hours by members of the US Congress, with Washington considering a total ban on TikTok in the country.
Chinese law of 2017
At the center of fears is a 2017 Chinese law that requires local companies to hand over personal data that would be relevant to national security upon request from the authorities.
The Chinese government “has never asked and will not ask any company or individual to collect or hand over data from abroad in a way that violates local laws,” a spokesperson said on Friday. word of Chinese diplomacy, Mao Ning.
TikTok has more than one billion active users worldwide, including 125 million in the European Union.
Spectre plus large
The ban drawn by Paris on Friday has a broader spectrum than those decided in other Western countries because it targets all recreational applications rather than the TikTok network alone. “These applications were not designed to be deployed on professional networks”, justifies the Ministry of Public Service.
The measures announced in recent days by the Netherlands or Norway are less restrictive: the two countries have simply advised their officials not to use TikTok.
The scope of the restrictive measures varies greatly from one state to another, several having chosen to prohibit the application to political personnel (deputies, ministers) rather than to civil servants.
Opaque algorithm
Apart from data security concerns, TikTok is also criticized for the opacity of its algorithm and regularly accused of hosting videos of misinformation, dangerous challenges and sexually charged images.
“Tomorrow, we will have to ask ourselves regarding extending this ban to children,” tweeted Secretary of State for Children Charlotte Caubel on Friday.
“Addictive algorithms, incitement to self-harm, overexposure to screens, inappropriate content, risks to personal data, cyberbullying, misinformation… There are many risks for children,” she listed.
AFP, among more than a dozen fact-checking organizations, is paid by TikTok in several countries in Asia and Oceania, Europe, the Middle East and Spanish-speaking Latin America to verify facts. videos that potentially contain false information. They are deleted by TikTok if the AFP teams demonstrate that the information conveyed is false.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp
