Belgium: The Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has announced that the country’s federal government employees will no longer be allowed to use the Chinese-owned video app TikTok on their work phones.

Mr. De Croo noted that 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 also bexcuase of that that the company is required to cooperate with Chinese intelligence services.

“That is the reality. 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 Prime Minister shared in a statement.

TikTok replied to the announcement by stating that it was disappointed with a decision based on “fundamentally wrong information”. The company commented that it’s “readily available to meet with officials to address any concerns and set the record straight on misconceptions.”

According to TikTok, it stores user data in the U.S. and Singapore and is building data centers in Europe. “The Chinese government can’t force other sovereign nations to share data that is stored in their territory,” a spokesman for the company remarked.

In February 2023, the European Commission and the European Parliament banned TikTok from staff phones due to growing concerns about the company, and whether China’s government could get users’ data or advance its interests. Beijing has regularly denied claims of having any such intentions.

Recently,  Belgium’s Flemish regional government announced that it would ban the use of TikTok on staff phones. The Belgium government’s new decision will require other regional governments to apply the same rules.

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