The Netherlands is considering banning TikTok on government devices

MADRID, 16 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Most of the parties in the Netherlands House of Representatives are considering the possibility of banning the use of the TikTok application on the mobile devices of government officials, appealing to the need to be cautious with the Chinese parent platform.

The four parties that make up the government coalition in the Netherlands have expressed concern about the application, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, ensuring that its data protection is not sufficient and that therefore it is possible that the information of the users can be seen by the Chinese government, as reported by the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation (NOS).

In December, Tiktok made a change to its privacy policy, giving Chinese employees access to data from European users, though it's unclear exactly what data these employees have access to and which employees are involved.

The Minister of Digitization and member of the Democrats 66 party, Hind Dekker Abdulaziz, has warned of a "potentially high security risk." "Let's be cautious and ban TikTok on the work devices of officials. There are about 140,000 officials who work for the Government," she justified.

The political formation called Christian Democrats (CDA), in the voice of parliamentarian Evert Jan Slootweg, has urged the House of Representatives to follow the example of the United States. "We must not be naive and follow the path of the US government," he requested, according to the aforementioned media.

Along the same lines, the Popular Party for Liberty and Democracy have declared that they have already carried out studies on the dangers of the application.

The Christian Union, on the other hand, has requested a complete ban on the application in the country. "If it's not good enough for civil servants, why should it be good enough for our children?" argued Nico Drost MP.

The proposal comes months after the US Senate pushed through legislation to ban TikTok on government devices, after lawmakers said they fear the data, collected by the company, could be passed on to the Chinese government.

"TikTok is a Trojan horse for the Chinese Communist Party. It is a huge security risk for the United States, and until it is forced to completely sever ties with China, it has no place on government devices," he said. then Republican Senator Josh Hawley.

However, the Ministry of Digitization in the Netherlands has been reluctant to "simply" follow the US ban, stating that they hope to study the application and make their own decision in the coming weeks.