Belgium has joined the growing number of countries to ban TikTok on government-owned devices, citing concerns about cybersecurity, privacy and misinformation. The decision comes on the heels of similar actions by the US, Canada and the European Union.
The decision means that TikTok will be temporarily prohibited from devices owned or paid for by Belgium’s federal government for at least six months, according to a post on Belgium’s Prime Minister, Alexander de Croo’s website.
The Chinese-owned company has been under the radar of Western authorities led by the US, over concern that it poses a threat to national security. Many states across the US, including Washington, have banned the use of the short-form video app on government devices.
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Belgium is the latest US ally to prohibit the use of the platform on government-issued devices.
TikTok said it is “disappointed at this suspension, which is based on basic misinformation about our company.” The company said it’s “readily available to meet with officials to address any concerns and set the record straight on misconceptions.”
TikTok parent, ByteDance, has tried to distance itself from Beijing, moving its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. It has also moved its data centers away from China to mitigate the security concerns. But the efforts have failed to calm the nerves of Western authorities.
Recently, Denmark’s defense ministry ordered employees to remove the app from devices used for official business, following the steps of the US and others.
TikTok became a force to reckon with in a short time, racking up more than one billion monthly active users in challenge to US-based social media companies such as Facebook. While the growing apathy toward TikTok is said to be tied to the tech-economy rivalry between the US and China, every country that has made the decision to ban the app has cited security concerns.
De Croo said Belgium’s ban was based on warnings from the state security service and its cybersecurity center, which said the app could harvest user data and tweak algorithms to manipulate its news feed and content.
They also reechoed the warning issued by the FBI director, Chris Wray, in November, that TikTok could be compelled to carry out spying for Beijing.
“We are in a new geopolitical context where influence and surveillance between states have shifted to the digital world,” de Croo said in an online statement. “We must not be naive: TikTok is a Chinese company which today is obliged to cooperate with the intelligence services. This is the reality. Prohibiting its use on federal service devices is common sense.”
TikTok has in collaboration with US firms such as Oracle, moved its data centers to the US and Singapore, a measure the company said it has applied in Europe to ease concerns.
“The Chinese government cannot compel another sovereign nation to provide data stored in that nation’s territory,” the company said in a statement.
However, fuelled by tech-economy rivalry, TikTok’s ordeal is escalating, and may end in outright ban in the West. Early this month, the House committee approved a bill that will give President Joe Biden powers to ban apps seen as potential risk to the US national security.
TikTok said it’s disappointed by the move, adding that a US ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide.