The Swedish Army announced on Monday (27) a ban for all its military personnel from using the Chinese app TikTok on their professional mobile devices for security reasons. The decision follows in the footsteps of other Western countries that have taken similar measures.
“The use of cell phones and tablets can in itself pose a security risk. Therefore, from now on, we do not want TikTok on our service equipment,” said Guna Graufeld, spokesman for the Swedish Armed Forces.
The Swedish Army said it based its decision on public information, “on how the app captures user data.”
Recently, the White House, the European Commission, and the Canadian and British governments have banned their employees from using TikTok on their work phones. The Norwegian Parliament did the same last week.
The French government, meanwhile, has banned the installation and use of “leisure” applications, such as the social network TikTok or the American platform Netflix, on professional phones. According to Paris, these applications present “cybersecurity and data protection risks.”
The reason for these fears is a 2017 Chinese law that obliges local companies to hand over to the authorities, upon request, personal data having to do with national security issues.
On Friday (24), China stated that it is not asking its companies for data collected abroad. In the United States, TikTok faces a possible total ban.
(With information from AFP)