Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Social Networks

Belgium Bans TikTok From Federal Government Work Phones (reuters.com) 21

Belgian federal government employees will no longer be allowed to use the Chinese-owned video app TikTok on their work phones, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Friday. From a report: De Croo said the Belgian national security council had warned of the risks associated with the large amounts of data collected by TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, and the fact that the company is required to cooperate with Chinese intelligence services. "That is the reality," the prime minister said in a statement. "That's why it is logical to forbid the use of TikTok on phones provided by the federal government. The safety of our information must prevail." The European Commission and the European Parliament last month banned TikTok from staff phones due to growing concerns about the company, and whether China's government could harvest users' data or advance its interests.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Belgium Bans TikTok From Federal Government Work Phones

Comments Filter:
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 10, 2023 @10:42AM (#63358731)

    ...did not waffle on this decision.

  • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Friday March 10, 2023 @10:47AM (#63358745)

    These are government phones. They are to be used for work purposes, not recording yourself sucking down two liters of Pepto Bismol and posting for the world to see.

    Since it's not your phone the government can tell you what you can and can't do with them.

  • Control of the APP market is two players, who have banned apps for less.

    And that is all one needs to know.

    • by narcc ( 412956 )

      All the more reason to support open standards. Most things don't need to be an app. Use the website if one is available instead, or don't use it at all.

      Thanks to PWAs, your website/app/game/whatever can act just like a native app, even work off-line. Naturally, Apple is the one holding this back, along with the rest of the web, but it's good enough on Android to use today for most apps.

      It's trivial to ban an app from the app store. It's hard to ban a website.

  • Does the federal government employ that many Belgians that this is a serious problem ?
  • Secret recipes for waffles, chocolate and beer! They can have the brussels sprouts though.
  • Why are federal government's work phones allowing users to install anything not directly sanctioned. How is it that government agencies are seemingly too incompetent to use basic mobile device management services which have been available for just shy of a decade now.

    • by Anonymous Coward
      The Belgian governments do use such management tools for the phones they own.

      The decision taken today is not only about phones owned by the government, but also private phones of government employees for which the government pays part of their subscription.

      For phones owned by civil servants which are not sponsored by the government, there is only a "strong advise" to not install TikTok.
  • The Belgian Defense minister, in spite of the advice of her own administration, uses TikTok to broadcast herself dancing. Yeah, the Belgians have crappy ministers.

Truly simple systems... require infinite testing. -- Norman Augustine

Working...