Belgian federal government workers will no longer be allowed to use the Chinese video app TikTok on their work phones, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Friday.
De Croo said Belgium’s National Security Council had warned of the risks associated with the large amounts of data being collected by Belgium tick tockowned by a Chinese company ByteDanceand the fact that the company has to work with Chinese intelligence agencies.
“That is the reality,” the prime minister said in a statement.
“Therefore, it is consistent to ban the use of TikTok on cellphones provided by the federal government. The security of our information must be a priority.”
TikTok said in a statement it was disappointed by a decision it said was based on “fundamentally incorrect information.”
The company said it stores user data in the US and Singapore and is building data centers in Europe.
“The Chinese government cannot force other sovereign nations to share data stored on their territory,” a company spokesman said.
The European Commission and European Parliament banned TikTok from employees’ phones last month over growing concerns about the company and whether the Chinese government could be collecting user data or defending its interests.
Beijing has regularly denied having such intentions.
Belgium’s Flemish regional government on Thursday announced it would limit access to TikTok on staff phones, and other regional governments have been urged by De Croo to apply the same rules.
The video-sharing app has already been banned from work phones in the US and Canada, while it has been banned outright in India.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
