France is banning TikTok on public sector employees' phones

TikTok is also banned on government officials’ phones in the US, Canada and Belgium.<br><br>France has joined other Western countries banning the social media app from public sector employees’ phones. The move is part of a broader crackdown on TikTok and “reinformation” threats from Russia and China.<br><br>The French government said that “in order to assure the security and the confidentiality of data of the State and the protection of its interests” government officials “must not install this app on professional devices or use it with a professional email and professional passwords”<br><br>TikTok is also banned on government officials’ phones in the US, Canada and Belgium.<br><br>Governments are worried about TikTok’s relationship with the Chinese government, and the potential for data from the platform to be used for espionage.<br><br>But today the French government said it is moving away from the “hyper-specialisation of tools” and pointed to threats from “reinformation” in general.<br><br>It said it has drawn up a broader list of banned apps which will be imposed from Monday on all professional phones, except for phones used for "public communication" and those used for monitoring online misinformation and disinformation.<br><br>AFP reported the list of banned apps includes Shazam, Netflix, Spotify, Fortnite, Uber Eats, DoorDash and Pokémon Go and hundreds of other apps that are considered to be high risk.<br><br>French officials have said that the ban does not apply to work phones just used for public communication.<br><br>Also today, China accused Western countries of “massively” abusing human rights in Tech crackdowns, and warned against “politicising” science and technology.<br><br>According to AFP, Tian Yulong, a senior official with China’s Cyberspace Administration, claimed in a press conference that some countries are "imposing discriminatory and unreasonable restrictions on justifiably operating Chinese companies".<br><br>Reuters reported him saying: “China opposes certain countries’ disinformation campaigns to hype up the threat of digital security”.<br><br>Source (The Guardian)<br>Post by (u/IvanTheBidiBidiBum)