The European Commission has banned thousands of employees from using the TikTok app on their personal and work devices, an order whose full compliance is expected by March 15.
The commission stated the move as a means to protect data and increase cybersecurity.
“This measure aims to protect the commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyberattacks against the corporate environment of the commission,” the governing body stated.
However, the ByteDance social media platform responded by terming the act as misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions.
“We have contacted the commission to set the record straight and explain how we protect the data of the 125 million people across the EU who come to TikTok every month,” the firm noted.
ByteDance stated it has put in place measures like reducing employee access to data and launching three data centers in Europe where subscribers’ information would be stored locally and not exported to foreign jurisdictions like China.
Amid fears that data collected by tTikTok may be breached by China, government and officials in Europe and US imposed similar restrictions on its employees.
According to an analytics firm called Apptopia, Tiktok was the most downloaded app in the world in 2022.