BEIJING (Dispatches) — China said Wednesday a ban on the use of TikTok by official European Union institutions will harm business confidence in Europe.
In the latest salvo in the battle over the Chinese-owned video sharing app, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council have banned TikTok from being installed on official devices
That follows similar actions taken by the U.S. federal government, Congress and more than half of the 50 U.S. states. Canada has also banned it from government devices.
TikTok is wildly popular among teens, but the U.S. and its allies claim China could use its legal and regulatory powers to obtain private user data or to try to push misinformation or narratives favoring China on the platform.
“The EU claims to be the most open market in the world, but recently it has been taking restrictive measures and unreasonably suppressing other countries’ companies on the grounds of national security,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing Wednesday.
“This will dampen the international community’s confidence in the business environment in the EU,” Mao said.
“The EU should match its words with deeds, respect the market economy and fair competition, stop overstretching and abusing the concept of national security and provide an open, fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for all companies,” Mao said.
EU staffers are required to delete TikTok from devices that they use for professional business by March 15. In Norway, which is not a member of the 27-nation EU, the justice minister was forced to apologize this month for failing to disclose that she had installed TikTok on her government-issued phone.
The European Parliament’s president, Roberta Metsola, and the secretary-general, Alessandro Chiocchetti, decided TikTok must not be used or installed on staff devices such as mobile phones, tablets or laptops from March 20, according to a note issued Tuesday.
“As of this date, web access to TikTok through our corporate network... will also be blocked,” the parliament’s directorate-general for innovation and technological support said in the note to around 8,000 of the institution’s employees.
It also “strongly recommended” MEPs and their staff remove TikTok from their personal devices.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, and the European Council, which represents 27 EU member states, ordered a similar ban Thursday.
TikTok said the bans were “misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions” and called for “due process and equal treatment”.
The company added the decision was taken “on the basis of fears rather than facts”.
Last week, the company insisted it protects the data of its 125 million
monthly users in the European Union.
The White House on Monday gave federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from all government-issued devices after a ban ordered by the US Congress late last year.
On the same day, Canada’s government banned TikTok from all phones and other devices, citing similar data protection concerns amid strained Canadian-Chinese relations.
In Europe, Denmark’s parliament announced Tuesday it had asked MPs and all staff to remove the app from mobile devices because of the “risk of spying”.In the U.S., the White House is giving all federal agencies, in guidance issued Monday, 30 days to wipe TikTok off all government devices. The White House already did not allow TikTok on its devices.