Ireland Asks Government Employees To Avoid Using TikTok On Official Devices

TikTok is recommended to be banned in Irlania. (photo: dock. pexels)

JAKARTA - The government agency in charge of providing advice to the Irish government regarding cybersecurity recommended on Friday 21 April that staff in government departments and state agencies not use video applications owned by Chinese company TikTok on official devices.

A number of western countries including the UK, US, and other EU member states have banned TikTok for security reasons. The two largest EU policy institutions also banned the app last month.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is under scrutiny from governments and regulators due to concerns that the Chinese government could use its app to collect user data or advance its interests.

The head of the Irish National Cyber Security Center said TikTok was at a "very high rating, if not the highest ranking in terms of the amount of user data collected" and that this creates risks, given China's intelligence gathering legal properties.

"The problem here is not what we know is happening. The problem is what we can't eliminate that is happening," NCSC Director Richard Browne told RTE television station.

NCSC says there's no reason why politicians can't use this app on their personal devices and that the app can be used on official devices in certain cases where there are business needs, such as by the press office.

Reported by Reuters, TikTok ran a number of its European operations from Dublin, including privacy and data protection. Last month, the company announced it would open a second data center in Ireland and reduce data transfers outside the European Union.