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Business News/ News / World/  France bans TikTok, other ‘recreational apps’ on phones of civil servants
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France bans TikTok, other ‘recreational apps’ on phones of civil servants

French government has banned ‘recreational apps’ such as TikTok, Twitter and Instagram from the devices of civil servants with immediate effect.

French government cited insufficient levels of cybersecurity and data protection on these recreational apps as a reason for the ban. (AFP)Premium
French government cited insufficient levels of cybersecurity and data protection on these recreational apps as a reason for the ban. (AFP)

French government has announced a ban on the ‘recreational’ use of popular social media apps like TikTok, Twitter and Instagram owing to concerns surrounding data security.

French Minister for Transformation and Public Administration made the announcement via his Twitter account, he wrote, “In order to guarantee the cybersecurity of our administrations and civil servants, the government has decided to ban recreational applications such as TikTok on the professional phones of civil servants"

Also Read: What TikTok CEO was asked in his first appearance before US Congress? 10 points

In a statement released with the announcement, the Frech Minister said, for several weeks, many of France's European and international partners have adopted measures to restrict or ban the downloading and installation of TikTok application.

He added that these recreational applications do not have sufficient levels of cybersecurity and data protection to be deployed on government equipment and could pose a risk to the protection of data on the phones of civil servants.

While naming TikTok, Guerini's statement is silent on other “recreational apps".News agency Associated Press has reported that other such apps would include Twitter, Instagram and Netflix, as well as popular games such as Candy Crush and dating apps.

The ban on TikTok and other recreational apps is effective immediately and will be monitored by France's cybersecurity agency. However, exceptions to the ban maybe granted in certain professional use cases such as institutional communication.

Also Read: Countries that have banned TikTok

France joins a list of notable Western democracies, including the US, UK and European Union, that have banned the popular Chinese social media app from government devices over data leak concerns. 

With rising tensions among the West and China, TikTok has been caught in the middle. Western democracies have insinuated that TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance might share user data with the Chinese government.

Biden administration has also warned TikTok to severe its ties with ByteDance or get banned in America. This would mean 150 million TikTok users in the US will have to find an alternative to their popular social media app. 

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Published: 25 Mar 2023, 06:58 AM IST
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