(Paris) The French government on Friday banned the installation and use of “recreational” applications such as the Chinese social network TikTok or the American streaming platform Netflix on the work phones of the 2.5 million agents. of the state civil service.
These applications present “risks in terms of cybersecurity and data protection of public officials and the administration”, estimated the entourage of the Minister of Public Service Stanislas Guerini, who follows in the footsteps of several Western institutions and governments having already banned or restricted the use of TikTok on work devices.
Among the apps now banned is “the triptych of gaming apps like Candy Crush, streaming apps like Netflix, and recreational apps like TikTok,” said the entourage of Civil Service Minister Stanislas Guerini, adding that Twitter is also indexed.
The ban, notified to the various ministries through a “binding” instruction according to the government, comes into force immediately, and does not concern the personal phones of state officials.
Civil servants who wish to use one of the banned applications for institutional communication purposes must apply for an exemption from the digital department of their ministry.
In case of violation of the prohibition, no unified system of sanctions is foreseen at this stage. Any sanctions will have to be decided “at the managerial level” of each ministry, according to the services of Stanislas Guerini.
The White House, the European Commission, the Canadian and British governments, among others, and other organizations recently banned their officials from using TikTok on their work phones.
At the center of fears is a 2017 Chinese law that requires local companies to hand over personal data that would be relevant to national security upon request from the authorities.
The Chinese government “has never and will not ask any company or individual to collect or hand over data from overseas in a way that violates local laws,” a spokesperson said Friday. word of Chinese diplomacy, Mao Ning.
