in Sweden the army has announced that it will ban the use of Chinese-owned Tiktok on work phones for security reasons. Similar solutions have been made in public administrations in many other Western countries.
Tiktok is a very popular application for sharing short videos worldwide.
According to the decision seen by news agency AFP, the armed forces justify the decision with information about how the application uses user data, as well as the actions of ByteDance, which owns Tiktok.
Spokesman for the Armed Forces Use Graufeldt tells AFP that the use of mobile phones and tablets in itself can be a security risk, which is why Tiktok is not wanted on work devices.
Last last week, Norway banned the use of Tiktok on devices that provide access to the system of the country’s parliament, i.e. the grand chambers. in France public sector workers were banned last week from downloading Tiktok and other entertainment apps to their work phones.
The European Commission and the governments of the Netherlands, Great Britain, the United States, Canada and New Zealand have banned the use of Tiktok on work devices from the authorities, because the application and its owner are feared to have connections with the Chinese government.
ByteDance has assured that the Chinese government does not have access to its data. However, last November the company admitted that some of its employees in China had access to European user data, and in December the company said employees used the data to spy on suppliers.
China’s the administration said last week that it would not ask companies for data collected overseas. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China has never required and will never require companies or individuals to collect or provide data originating from abroad in ways that would violate local laws.