The French government has just decreed on Friday, March 24th that French government civil servants are forbidden from having TikTok on their cell phones. Other so-called ‘recreational’ platforms such as Netflix may also become under restriction. 2.5 million agents are now subject to this new regulation.
Several government institutions have already legislated on the matter. The White House, the European Commission, Canadian and British governments have banned the installation of TikTok on their employees’ work phones for reasons of data security. It turns out that such bans are warranted. Since 2017, local companies are obligated by Chinese law to hand over personal data that would fall under national security, if requested by the authorities. Despite the Chinese government’s attempts to reassure international opinion, convincing the public that the Chinese government “has never asked nor will it ask any company or individual to collect or (hand over) data from abroad in a way that would violate local laws,” is not likely. In the words of Chinese diplomatic spokeswoman Mao Ning, distrust is rife over the confidentiality of users’ data.
In France, the office of Minister of Public Service Stanislas Guérini has put forward “risks in terms of cybersecurity and data protection of public officials and the administration” to justify the ban on all applications deemed dangerous on government work devices. Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, for his part, stressed the importance for France to ensure its “security” as well as its “sovereignty.”
State officials are bound by government to enforce the ban—effective immediately. However, it does not concern the personal phones of agents who may, if this was not the case until now, be required to use two different devices. The case may arise of government officials wishing to use the incriminated programs for institutional communication: in this case, they will have to apply for a waiver to obtain authorization from the digital department of their supervisory ministry.
France goes further than the countries that have already taken the step of banning TikTok for their agents. Indeed, TikTok is not the only application under scrutiny by the new regulation. Even if no exhaustive and definitive list of banned programs has yet been communicated by the French authorities, recreational applications such as Candy Crush or the streaming platform Netflix have been singled out, regardless of their origin, Chinese or not. Twitter could be next.
At the same time, the National Assembly strongly advises parliamentarians against using messaging systems such as WhatsApp, Signal (applications of American origin), or Telegram (a program of Russian origin). The leaders of the Renaissance and Les Républicains groups now recommend the use of the Wimi platform, which is entirely secure … and French.
