Brussels politicians will do almost anything for votes. In a breathtaking display of double standards, they’ll even use a social media app that their own institutions have banned due to security fears.
MEPs believe TikTok to be so dangerous that they have long recommended banning the Chinese app—on which users typically share short video clips set to music—“at all levels of national government and in the EU institutions.” Cybersecurity fears did in fact prompt the Commission to ban its staff from using TikTok in February last year—a ban that is still supposed to be very much in place, with the app seen as spyware. Parliament was quick to follow suit.
But the very same Parliament is now willing to set aside these fears to boost its social media presence ahead of the upcoming election season. Its press office told Euractiv that it would do so “without initially using European Parliament devices and networks” (emphasis added). This comment opens the door to parliamentary officials posting on TikTok on behalf of the institution further down the line.
The spokesperson added in defence that usage of the app “would allow the [European Parliament] to fight disinformation and get the message across while keeping Parliament systems secure.”
Euractiv added that regardless of bans across European institutions, MEPs and their political groups are already using TikTok to get ahead of their opponents in the elections.
Commenting on the news, Czech MEP Markéta Gregorová said:
It’s one thing to consider TikTok [as] Chinese spyware and ban it. … [It’s another thing] to tell yourself that you will use an evil tool for a good cause. To choose both is bizarre and hypocritical. I have already lobbied the chairwoman of our faction to speak against it tomorrow.
Parliament’s official usage of TikTok is expected to be debated by officials in the coming week. It will be interesting to see if any other security compromises are made in pursuit of power.
