The European Parliament has voted to ban Chinese social media app %TikTok from all government devices over %Cybersecurity concerns.
While several countries within Europe had previously taken steps to limit TikTok’s use on government devices, this is the first official ban of TikTok across the entire European Union and it applies to all government branches and agencies in the 27-country bloc.
The ban goes into effect on March 20 of this year, though the European parliament strongly recommended that government employees immediately remove TikTok from both their professional and personal smartphones and other devices.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance called the European ban “disappointing.”
European countries, as well as the U.S. and Canada, have been banning TikTok from government devices over concerns that the Chinese government can use the popular social media app to access sensitive data and information.
TikTok, which allows people to watch short videos, remains extremely popular with more than one billion daily active users worldwide. By some estimates, as many as 125 million people in Europe access TikTok each month.
TikTok admitted last year that China could access user data if it wanted to do so.
Citing similar concerns to those in Europe, the White House last week directed federal agencies to remove TikTok from all government-issued devices within 30 days.
The Government of Canada announced a similar ban on TikTok pertaining to the devices used by civil servants for work. Several Canadian provinces also banned TikTok from official government devices.