Citing security concerns, two NATO officials confirmed that all employees are now prohibited from downloading TikTok on devices provided by the organization.
On Friday, an official notice was issued to employees informing them that the popular TikTok app is now banned from all devices . Officials said TikTok was not accessible on the devices anyway, due to internal technological limitations. However, the message sent to staff made the ban official.
See also: Arkansas: Sues TikTok and Meta over child privacy and safety
"Cybersecurity is a top priority for NATO. NATO has strong requirements for determining applications for official business use. TikTok is not accessible on NATO devices," a senior official told CNN.
NATO has banned the use of TikTok due to concerns that Bytedance, the app's Chinese parent company, could potentially access confidential data provided by users. Many countries, including the US, UK, Norway, New Zealand, France as well as the European Commission, have already banned the use of this app on government devices.
See also: How to find Watch History on TikTok?
TikTok CEO Shou Chewrecently told U.S. lawmakers that the company has no ties to the Chinese government. He also said that he “has not seen any evidence that the Chinese government has access to this data. They have never asked us for it, we have not provided it.”
Additionally, he said that TikTok transfers its data to American servers managed by Oracle.
See also: TikTok adds new policies on artificial intelligence
NATO bans TikTok
Bytedance has repeatedly denied giving user data to the government. However, Western governments remain skeptical. Western countries are concerned that the Chinese government, with its laws, could force China's Bytedance to provide user data from other countries. There are also concerns that TikTok is being used to spread propaganda.
TikTok should be “terminated one way or another,” Secretary of State Antony BlinkenCongress earlier this month.
Source: edition.cnn.com
